Sentimental Work: Maxim Vengerov

In 1994, when I was 19 years old, I was ridiculously busy. I was performing 130 concerts per year, and when I wasn’t travelling I’d want to spend the time relaxing with my family. That left very little time for learning new repertoire, but when the opportunity came up to perform and record Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto no.1 with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, of course I agreed. Although I’d never studied it, I’d fallen in love with the concerto years before. I only had one condition: that I got to meet Rostropovich beforehand. Slava had had such a deep relationship with Shostakovich, I felt that it could be a direct link to the composer himself.