The Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar wrote some wonderful music. His best work for piano in my view is the Late Summer Night suite. Since his music is not well known to American listeners, I am very happy to be able to play it and to let people discover its marvellous beauty and originality. The Grieg pieces are not played so often in recitals by professional pianists, but I play them very often, and the audience is always so happy to hear them. It's such beautiful music, and very Norwegian in character.
Classical music can never compete with the commercial music that dominates the media.
The music is complicated and does require attention when listening, and people, today, want entertainment only, and don't seem to look for more profound experiences. I think what is of import is to try to get children to listen more to quality music of all sorts in school, and for musicians to visit schools to play for them, and not expect money in this situation. Of course you can blame it all on the people who want to make money out of music quickly remembered and quickly forgotten, but, hey, I do know quite a few musicians who are obsessed with money, too. Also coming up are three concerts with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, which will be a start of a series where all the Mozart Piano Concertos will be played. Next spring, there will be a tour in Japan, and this is a very interesting project.