Valery Kastelsky and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 7

Valery Kastelsky was one of the greatest Russian pianists and pedagogues of the second half of the 20th century. He studied in Moscow with the legendary Soviet pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus and was awarded at three major piano competitions: Chopin’s in Warsaw (1960), Long Thibaud in Paris (1963) and the ARD competition in Munich (1967). He is known for his nobility, spirituality, charm and deep and thoughtful performances. From 1992 to 2001, he was the Vice President of the Alexander Scriabin Foundation in Russia (from 1992 until today, the President of the Foundation is Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, who is also the Honorary President of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin”). As he was one of the last and dearest students of the great Neuhaus, his professor said of him: “Valery Kastelsky is one of my most interesting and favourite students. He knows how to get the audience to listen to music carefully. There is something very individual in his talent. I believe that his distinctive talent will still mature and that the general public will recognize it very soon.”

I was fortunate to be one of the many Professor Kastelsky’s students, and my collaboration with him began in 1997 when I enrolled in the Graduate School at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and it lasted until the year 2000. My memories of him are extremely beautiful both from the professional and from the human point of view. Regardless of the fact that in his young age he won awards at the world’s most famous piano competitions, he was not a “competitive” type, neither according to recordings from those days nor according to pedagogical principles. Being an extremely poetic but also introverted person, he never liked excessively fast tempi and external effects. The content and core of music have always been the focus of his attention. Absolute respect for the composer’s text was mandatory! Also, impeccable pianistic mastery of matter was something that had to be achieved without discussion. But one of the most important components of his pedagogy was working on sound. The nobility and dignity of tone were constant themes of our classes. He never tolerated, and