Daniil Trifonov Sergei Babayan by Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, Frá (2023/2023), Alfried Krupp Hall, Essen, Germany

"He's a dream for a teacher - a real diamond. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to have a student like that," said Sergei Babayan about his former student Daniil Trifonov. Babayan developed a deep love for the sound world of the composer Sergej Rachmaninoff, whose 150th birthday the music world will celebrate in 2023, and he passed it on to the now internationally acclaimed Daniil Trifonov. "One day he said I was mentally mature enough for this music so that it wouldn't become too sentimental," he recalls. Today, Trifonov is one of the leading Rachmaninoff interpreters, and what was once a teacher-student relationship has grown into a close and inspiring artist friendship.