Hello Edouard Reichenbach.

Thank you for your thoughtful review.

However I am surprised that you think that I played own inventions in the Beethoven concerto.

If you go back to the CD-booklet, Prof. Robin Stowell clearly explains that we used Beethovens own handwritten variants. In fact Prof. Stowell advised and encouraged us to do so, because nobody knows who prepared the printed edition. The printed versions often being the easiest ones to play, they might have been chosen by the publisher to improve sales.

I am especially saddened that Mr. Molkhou of the Diapason pretended in his review that I have added variations of my proper invention and therefore speaks of sacrilege and treason.

But I did not add one single note on my own invention, everything is Beethovens own hand.

Also the cadenzas are all Beethoven. Originally I wanted to play the cadenza of the first movement on two violins with the concertmaster (as I do sometimes on stage). But he thought that this recording should be "all mine". So with the help of the sound engineer I did it all myself. I cannot understand why some people are scandalised by this fact. Its anyway still Beethoven and as faithfully reproduced as possible under the given circumstances.

Of course nobody knows how Clement really played. But several contemporary descriptions note that he was unable to produce a big sound. He was also criticised for this in his later life. So we played really pp and ppp when Beethoven demands it and I generally tried to avoid the big fat "international standard sound" of the last century.

Giovanni Francesco Pressenda lived from 1777 to 1854. He and his violins belong clearly to the first half of the 19th century, as does the Beethoven concerto.

Hearing the recording today I would play even faster.

Sincerely yours

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

P.S. I will play three concerts in Paris in February 2010.

Liebe Liane, Danke für die Blumen, aber das Verneigen ist übertrieben. Sonst ist man bald wieder bei der Kunst die auf abgehobenem Podest stattfindet.... Liebe Grüsse Pat

Thank you Klaus,
I enjoy doing chamber music with Henri Sigfridsson and Sol Gabetta (piano trio), I also played a few quatuors in public. To be a really good quatuor you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, which I do not have at this stage. But we play quatuor privately for us at home, Beethoven, Haydn and the like.
And of course I will come to Munich, I love the city. All the best
Pat

Ich spiele so unheimlich gern mit Fazil, er ist eine unendliche Inspiration, es ist wie mitten in einem Erdbeben zu stehen, Gruss Pat