A friend of mine, very expert of GS, told me that there’re no political reasons, but he suffers a lot from jet leg. So he declined recitals in USA and Japan. Only Europe
Is there some reason he’s never performed in the U.S.? I can imagine he could easily sell out a hall in any major American city…I wonder why he stays from the U.S.
Oh, he's visited the US several times - but last in 1999. I can't guarantee that there was anything to it, but one with insight told me a few years ago that GS had been offered a substantial sum to cross the Atlantic once more, but that he had declined. I think it's the time difference. Plus that he at this stage prefers to stick to cities where he has a familiar audience.
I've traveled to Europe twice to hear him (met him once), and am a frequent concertgoer up and down the east coast (~40 concerts/year) ... if I may hypothesize: a part of the reason may be American audiences, who are with exceedingly rare exception noisy, unrestrained, and incapable of turning their phones off. He enjoys a dead-quiet, dark hall in which to play. Rarely does he accept applause except at the start and end of each half of a concert. American audiences are prone to clap between every piece or movements; I can't remember the last time a phone _hasn't_ gone off during a concert, and people choose the worst moments to cough. (In Stuttgart, I sat beside a man going red in the face keeping his cough in until the end of the piece, god bless him. Rarely would an American extend the same respect to the music.) Maestro Sokolov gives his attention only to the music; it's why he doesn't perform in the UK anymore either (visa requirements making him go to the consulate, losing him a half day or day of practice). The jetlag, the audience, the American airports (he travels almost exclusively by train in Europe) -- if I were him, I'd stay away too.
