Your new album with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin features Prokofiev’s two violin concertos and some of his opera and ballet music. Is it music you feel you have a particular affinity with?

Yes, I do feel that I have some sort of, as you say, affinity for the music and also for the personality of Prokofiev and his personality in music, because somehow he was a composer who managed to go beyond the borders – political borders, cultural borders – that were quite strong at that time. He had a dream of bringing his own culture together with European culture, something that was not very well known for him but something that he was kind of reaching out for. I think this is the reason why his music became so colourful, with so many facets and so much fantasy. For me, it’s like digging into a big fairy tale. His music is all about telling stories, giving images of certain things that can even be surreal.

You have said that recording Prokofiev’s violin concertos is the realisation of a cherished dream…

Yeah, the Prokofiev First Concerto was a piece that I learned at 13, which is quite young....