What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Balance.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Bach, Joachim, Kubrick.
Which living person do you most admire?
Elon Musk, Alexei Navalny.
Which is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience, laziness, orthographic mistakes.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Plaid pants, multi-functionality.
What is your favourite journey?
Back home, otherwise to Ireland, still to be done!
On what occasion do you lie?
Fear, merci or just fun.
Which living person do you most despise?
Alexander Lukashenko and all the similar dictators.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Apart from my wife? Music, for sure.
When and where were you happiest?
At the moment, and a couple of times after dangerous bike accidents.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Inventing things.
What is your current state of mind?
Thinking on the next question...
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Apart from my daughter, I suppose, my Mendelssohn Octet recording:
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
A deep cool mountain lake.
What is your most treasured possession?
Eyesight 125 per cent, Clavichord, my dad’s conducting stick.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Depression.
What is your favourite occupation?
Being creative.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Being honest and genuine.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Being smart and charming.
Who are your favourite writers?
Russian classics, Herman Hesse, Stephan Zweig.
What is your motto?
For the sunny times there is no need for any.
In hard times: The worse, the better!
If more general: disappointment comes from wrong expectations.
Russian virtuoso Sergey Malov (viola ) appears in Bach's Goldberg Variations (arrangement for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky ) in Music for Galwsy's online Midwinter Festival GOLDBERG. He performs with Maia Cabeza (violin ) and Natalie Clein (cello ) on Sunday January 24 at 3pm. Booking is via www.musicforgalway.ie
