Music comes straight from the heart, and it then goes through the mind and hands - at least according to Mischa Maisky. His long-awaited concert with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra is due on Friday at Bulgaria Hall in Sofia. The conductor is Alexander Zemtsov is familiar to audiences as a sophisticated violist. He often appears on stage in Bulgaria also due to the fact that his wife is Bulgarian, clarinet player Denitsa Laffchieva. This is Zemtsov's debut as conductor in this country. On Thursday the musicians met with the press at the BNR conference hall.

Mischa Maisky is an acclaimed cellist. He has been professionally linked with a few great musicians - talking to the press he mentioned Rostropovich and Piatigorsky as his teachers and Martha Argerich among others as a partner on stage.

Every concert, the cellist argues, is the most important - so tomorrow's concert is the most important in my life. Speaking about his music preferences, the maestro says that he falls in love with every work he performs and that love is at the basis of life. As he puts it, even before the Beatles mankind already knew that all we need is love. In the Soviet Union while still very young Mischa Maisky was sent to a labor camp and stopped playing the cello for two years. His problems with the Soviet regime prompted him to emigrate.

“It was a difficult time in my life”, he said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. “On the other hand, I am very positive. I always try to find the good side of things. I am convinced that this is possible in almost any situation, just like in the classical anecdote about the pessimist, the optimist and the glass. It was a moment of hardship but I do not regret that it happened. I am in part grateful to my fate to live through all this, I am happy for having this experience. Because of the labor camp I never got a certificate from the Moscow Conservatory but I got a lot more important thing, experience. Now I visit Russia every year, even more frequently. I went there for the first time in 1995, following an absence of 23 years. I love playing there - the audience is remarkable, orchestras and halls are amazing. As a student I had already met with Bulgarian musicians, I have known for a long time Stoika Milanova. We played together the Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra by Brahms. There are very good professional musicians in the world who are Bulgarians.”

One of the frequently asked questions put to the maestro is how he managed to make a recovery of his hands after the hard physical work at the labor camp:

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• Mischa Maisky for RB

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• Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninov, performed by Mischa Maisky (cello) and Pavel Gililov (piano), live recording

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Here is more from Alexander Zemtsov about his career as conductor to which he has recently switched:

“I cannot say I planned to become a conductor at any cost. It happened naturally. Now I have to work on stage with a renowned instrumentalist and this is great responsibility. We have played together - but as instrumentalists - we teamed up for Sinfonia Concertante in A major for violin, viola, cello and orchestra by Mozart. Mischa Maisky is very hearty and generous man. When such a musician is the soloist, the orchestra too plays differently.”

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• Sonata for cello and piano by Prokofiev, second movement, performed by Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich

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English Daniela Konstantinova