 Hello Pascal, so nice to see you. How are you? Happy birthday and joyous anniversary! It's so, so great to talk about music, piano, lots of things. It's a beautiful birthday gift, thank you. I think my life is better than ever and I'm not complaining. Even in spite of the difficult period we are through, I don't know, I enjoy life. I mean it's beautiful. I have my piano and my music and my friends and no, I mean it's great. Yeah, I think music keeps you spirit young and once the spirit is young the body follows. I remember one sentence by Francis Poulenc who was asked about the great composers, what he felt about Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven and he said all those composers are gods, you know. But Debussy, Forêt, Chabrier, they are my friends and I find it easier to cope with friends than with gods. And that's the reason why you are so known in the world for your kind of concentration on French composers, is it true? Absolutely, but it's also a matter of language. I mean you can be gifted and speak 24 different languages, but you will still have a mother tongue and my mother tongue is French music. So I mean it sounds very pretentious but I would say whatever I do Debussy or Ravel or Satie, I know it's right. I cannot say that about Schubert. Somebody called me once an ambassador of French music and I was very proud of that because it means, yeah, I want to make people discover music. I remember in the 80s when I started teaching no one would bring Poulenc to me, absolutely never. Now almost every masterclass I have some Poulenc. I don't think that you can play everything, truly, of course technically everybody can play everything. But I always said to my students there is a point, not now you're too young, but you will find your language. You will find what is you. Don't believe that you are universal. I catch and my teacher again told me at the moment, play everything because you have the age, I was 16, to learn, you have to learn, you have to play, you have to try, but later you will find. It's not only playing, it's not at the piano. I remember my teacher told me get away from the piano. You have too much technique. Breathe, walk, go to museums, read, I mean feel yourself with knowledge and culture and that will help your playing. I've had that question so many times from my students and saying, what do I do to make a career? What did you do to start such an amazing career? And I always say that I have a career because of the cleaning lady of my parents, because she was the one to introduce me to Julius Ketchum. Ketchum gave me my first recording, my first recycling in London, first recycling in Paris and so on. I won two competitions, I say that it didn't change anything. I didn't get a single concert out of that. I don't want to discourage people with competition, they have to go through that thing, but don't trust them. Do it for your own benefits, for your experience, for playing on stage and being with other colleagues. But don't expect that the first prize will bring you a career. So you don't have a problem if a German publisher, a scholarly publisher like Henle, is doing the core French repertory and word text edition? You have such a knowledge and a reputation about being faithful to the manuscript and the text. Whatever is Russian, French, German, Italian, it doesn't matter, it's the approach. We need that. I was told by my teachers, of course, many, many mistakes that Debussy and Ravel mentioned. And in the French edition, they are still there today. But you were right, mentioning that there is a kind of preconceived ideas of buying a German edition for French music. Because we always think that German editions should be for German music and French editions as well. But now I can see that in the master classes now and more and more. They have realized that they have to go to the word text edition in order to be faithful to the music. I counted the number of word text editions you spent your personal fingering. It's 18 volumes already. Wow, I'm impressed. As you know, fingering is always a controversial thing. Sometimes when I ask even famous pianists, they would refuse and say, hands of the people are so different, it's impossible. But many others, of course, like you, they do this because they have an idea how to finger this piano music. Is it your personal fingering you do on stage? For instance, I love so much your Ravel, piano to your fingering. Well, I remember there was a phrase of my teacher, Lucette Descaves, who told me, fingerings are like shoes. They don't fit anyone. But she said, but there are some rules that you should always have in mind. For instance, position of your hands, avoid turns. When you have a choice, every finger has its own talent. So choose him carefully. So that's when comes the science of fingering. And what I do for Henle, it's half and half. It's half my own fingerings. But I know the limits when I do something that is totally personal. So I am always kind of balancing my own ideas and my own beliefs in fingerings, but also being sure that I don't go over the top by doing something too personal that might disturb another pianist. So thinking about fingering is so important. That's why I'm very proud to be in collaboration with you, because I believe that I'm not directive with my fingerings, but I suggest things that I believe can help. Because there were some rules. I always mentioned the fact that at the time of Marguerite Long, she would say that it's forbidden to put thumbs on black keys. You've heard that before. I mean, what is that? Why is the reason? So that's the kind of thing I go against. I don't want to give a rule. I just want to give a help and a suggestion. My last concert was last February. And the next one hopefully would be in Madrid in May. It's still under question mark, of course. So I mean, not once in my professional life, I've ever been one year without playing a concert. It must be a nightmare for someone like you. Not really. Because I realized that the presence of my piano, the playing itself, is in fact the most important thing. I have a few recording projects. I did a lot of online teaching. I'm still... Because I teach regularly in London, Trinity College and Royal Academy. So those things are still happening online. And it's okay. There's a bit of sound problem, but still you can help them. And it's a good thing for the teacher because you have to think, how can I help in spite of the fact that I'm not there? And it works. I cannot say I'm very happy about the situation, but I think you have to adapt. There's nothing we can do about it. So what am I going to do in my life to be satisfied, happy, positive, and do what I can do instead of complaining? So I decided to refurbish my house. Of course, I cannot play ten hours of piano every day. So I decided, okay, there's a lot of work to do. It's my mother's house, it's also. So I did everything my mother said. It was fun. I was very fortunate. So that's why I'm being 70 today. I have nothing to complain about.