What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 8pm.
When Eugene Mursky makes his New Zealand debut on Thursday, he couldn't wish for a more theatrical launch than Prokofiev's glittering Third Concerto.
"I can't say that it's 'nice' music," the Russian pianist laughs.
"If you want 'nice' music then there's always the Liszt concerto in a week's time. But there is so much power in the Prokofiev and it's such a wonderful picture of the Soviet Union at that time. After listening to Prokofiev's music, you really can understand what the Russian people went through."
"He was a real communist," is Mursky's matter-of-fact response when I ask for his thoughts on Prokofiev the man. "He died on the same day as Stalin and my mother told me that there weren't any flowers for Prokofiev as all the flowers of the Soviet Union went to Stalin."
The 35-year-old Mursky was lucky to escape the worst rigours of the Soviet era. Growing up in Tashkent in the 1980s, by the age of 6 he was a student of the charismatic Tamara Popovich, a legend for her devotion to her pupils.
"There were six hours of lessons a week, and she would even work with her students when they were practising. I was almost tempted not to practise at home," he chuckles.
After a host of local successes, the teenage Mursky was looking beyond Russia. There had been offers from the University of Ankara in Turkey and he had a taste of New York when the Juilliard showed interest.
"One week in New York was enough for me," he winces. "It was just too big."
It was German pianist and teacher Reinhard Becker who tempted him to Trossingen, Germany, which proved perfect. And, for Mursky, the most extraordinary revelations of a new country were not musical ones.
"I couldn't believe how clean everything was," he confides.
"We were 25km from the Swiss border and it was cold; and, when it's cold, it's more likely to be clean. German streets were just so clean and the houses so tidy. This was so nice after the dirty Soviet Union I'd come from."
I confided that I too had experienced the perils of negotiating the icy streets of Moscow in the early 90s.
"Ha!" is the retort. "You could easily break a leg walking in Tashkent."
Within a year Mursky would win London's 1994 World Piano Competition, "an unbelievably good experience for the way in which it gave me concerts all around the world."
He had chosen the Tchaikovsky First Concerto and preparations were traumatic.
"I didn't sleep for three nights beforehand because I was worried about perfecting the concerto. After the results came out, I was so tired that it was all like a dream going on before my eyes. Princess Diana presented the prizes and she was so beautiful. My English was not very good and I could only say, 'Thank you very much', but she was talking, talking, talking and I couldn't understand a word."
There have been no such problems working with APO music director Eckehard Stier, who takes the podium for Thursday's concert, rounding off the evening with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
"Eckerhard's wonderful," Mursky exclaims.
"He always comes to the first rehearsal with everything already shaped and, when we make music, it's almost as if we don't have to talk.
"I know what he wants and he knows what I want."
