"You can always hear that it really is a composer playing," he says. "His technical virtuosity and unique sound even come through on those old gramophone records. Next week's concerto provides me with such great physical gratification to perform it. It's certainly a challenge but, at the same time, Rachmaninov's writing makes sure it's comfortable to play. And it's such an open work emotionally, which is the quality that should come out to the audience."
Gerstein gives a world-weary sigh when I ask about Rachmaninov the man.
"Tragic," is his immediate response. "Most Russian composers are very aware that their roots lie in their country's culture and geography," he explains. "The only exception was Stravinsky, who somehow carried his Russian culture around with him.
"Rachmaninov never really recovered after leaving Russia. He was forced to spend his life as a nomadic piano player to make a living and I'm sure we missed out on some great Rachamninov pieces because of this."
Gerstein has shared the stage with the world's leading conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Markus Stenz and Andrew Davies; next week, he will be working alongside Canadian Fabien Gabel.
When it comes to conductors, he admits he looks for a chamber music partner rather than an accompanist. "I most admire them when they play the orchestra as if it were an instrument. Just like I play the piano."
This concerto, however, is far more than just a two-man show, with the important roles of various orchestral instruments and sections. "Rachmaninov wrote it as an organic whole, and you've got to have the same attitude to realise the work's full potential."
One senses that Gerstein is very proud indeed of the line-up of music in his Friday recital, the same programme that, earlier this year, had the New York Times reporting that "the audience seemed stunned, deliriously so".
An evening of Bach's Three-Part Inventions, Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and a pair of chromatic inventions from Bartok's Mikrokosmos comes with a real curatorial intent. "I want to show how great composers, under the guise of writing so-called educational music, can actually go straight to the very heart of what the musical art is."
He likes the way the first Bach piece is "so dramatically clear and C major" after the gnarly tangle of the Bartok. He is particularly pleased to be presenting the Liszt.
The Etudes are "a compendium of the possibilities of piano writing," he says, showing Liszt as far more than just a flashy showman of the keyboard. "These Etudes are great musical pieces. Liszt was Austro-Hungarian ... and so much was inherited from Haydn and Beethoven. Berlioz and Paganini inspired him to see these works as tone poems for piano and this music went on to inspire Mahler and Bruckner. It's essential that we realise just how important Liszt is in the scheme of things."
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 7.30pm
Who: Kirill Gerstein in recital
Where and when: Auckland Museum Auditorium, Friday at 7.30pm
