It’s a great pleasure to invite you to my concert in London on 20 January at 19:30 at the Royal Festival Hall. London is one of my favourite cities, I love London atmosphere, the audience, orchestras, with whom I was fortunate enough to play. Luckily, I have formed great relationship with all of them, but still I would like to tell several words about London Symphony Orchestra, with which Maestro Gergiev and I have already planned a lot of interesting projects.  ...

The most fantastic, the most amazing time is approaching - the time the Christmas holidays.  ...

My short visit to Moscow turned out to be extremely fruitful. First there was a meeting of Tchaikovsky Competition 2015 organizing committee in Bolshoi Theatre, where we (with Valery Gergiev and Olga Golodets) made several really important decisions. First of all, we’ve formed the jury of the competition for 90%. The whole list will be announced in January. But now, I can assure you, there are outstanding musician, soloists and professors, in it. Secondly, it was decided that the first selective audition (video-presentations of candidates) will be judged by the main jury of the contest. Due to present-day internet-technologies, they can do it easily without necessity to gather in one place. And third, the voting system’s been transformed as well. Now a member of jury votes “yes” or “no” simply. And this makes the process more transparent and unbiased. Moreover, prizes are really attractive this year. Grand Prix amounts 100 000 US dollars. And laureates will have  an opportunity to perform their debut recitals in the most famous halls with the most famous orchestras and conductors. Media coverage of the Contest will be shared by our old and world famous partner (I’ll tell you its name later) and Kultura TV Channel. ...

As I always say: there is not even one day without improvisation in my life. It gives a peculiar scent to every day. Especially when you are on tour. And today’s happening proves this. As you know I am in Amsterdam right now. Tomorrow we will give a start to a series of concerts with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and maestro Mariss Jansons. And suddenly I got a phone call from maestro Gergiev, who was curious about where I was at that very moment. And when he got my answer – Amsterdam, he was really pleased and said that he was in Rotterdam. He is to perform a concert there tomorrow with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (they collaborated for many years). Besides he has a great festival there. And I took part in it many times. ...

I was really happy to be able to find time during my concert tour through Germany to come to Belarus for a day. As Alexander Blok said, " And endless battle! We only dream of peace ", so I decided to use my day off to perform a recital in Minsk. I once again was absolutely amazed by this country, this public. The concert, which was held in the Palace of the Republic, with an audience of 3,000 people, became incredibly strong and vivid impression of the day. Actually, I should say that Belarus is striking in its purity, hospitality and the amazing kindness of the people who live here, and today the atmosphere at the concert, despite the enormity of the hall and the presence of 3,000 people, was quite extraordinary, fascinating. "Understanding" silence during rests (and it is very rare and very expensive experience for any performer) struck me in the heart, because the audience here is just great in all respects: dear, sensitive, intelligent and very thoughtful. Particularly poignant these “understanding pauses” are heard in the works of Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, which I played this evening. I'm really happy that I came here. And once again I thought that I should visit Belarus more often and start to do interesting projects, primarily associated with the young generation of musicians. ...

My Concert Tour in Germany has started. I am going to visit Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Bremen, Berlin, Munich. Every time I come to this country I can’t help mentioning the fact, that almost all German cities and even small towns have very good professional concert halls. That fascinates and pleases me. ...

Two days in a row, 12 hours each day – shooting of New Year Celebration Concert on Kultura TV-channel, yesterday - concert in Mariinka (St.Petersburg) and recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto #1 till 2 o’clock in the morning. Today – heading to Singapore, flight time – 12 hours. See you soon! ...

Today we are opening the season with "the Israeli-Siberian" orchestra, it is fair to call it so, because it is still fresh in memory how IPO came to Irkutsk for participation in the festival "Stars on Baikal". That was a great event not only for Irkutsk, but the whole of Russia, as well as the diving of Maestro Meta in the waters of lake Baikal. ...

Yesterday absolutely unusual improvised concert took place. I repeat time after time that the best concert always is based on improvisation, and this concert was a proof of that. Unexpectedly I found myself in Drvengrad, cultural oasis, created by the efforts of one man - Emir Kusturica. He really managed to create his own planet of art, which attracts creative people from all over the world. I experienced emotional upheaval of what I saw here. Every detail in this village is somehow connected to work and life of Kusturica. There is a street of Fellini and a street of Diego Maradona. The wooden town almost all is the scenery for the movie "Life is a Miracle," which was filmed here. Wooden, very picturesque, in folk style huts. It is a unique ethno village, that makes a strong impression on every visitor. ...