He is one of the best-selling classical artists and among the most popular with his colleagues – an open, warm, intelligent and gentle man who has never sought the limelight and is famously reluctant to talk about himself.

In the Lebrecht Interview tonight on BBC Radio 3 (and streamed all week), Vladimir Ashkenazy talks about his life in Stalin’s Russia, his sympathy for some of his oppressors, and the values that have sustained him.