RFI Musique: For the last year, the media have been celebrating 50 years of your career. Which debut does this anniversary mark for you?

3,000 years of history then. What are your best memories, the life-changing meetings, the unforgettable moments? There have been so many it’s hard to tell! In France, the States, Eastern Europe, I met so many amazing people and had so many intense experiences that it would take more than a basket to carry them all, more like a 40-tonne lorry! I collaborated with Jacques Demy, with Didier Van Cauwelaert. There was Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz… I spent a few years with Aragon – that was wonderful. Working with Dizzy Gillespie was magic. And Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Frank Sinatra… I’ve just got back from Russia where I was touring with Vladimir Spivakov’s orchestra. It was marvellous! It’s been a career of 70,000 encounters.

Do you have any regrets or dreams that you haven’t (yet) fulfilled? Not really. Off the top of my head, I regret that I didn’t learn more languages, visit certain countries and listen to music that I don’t yet know about. In other words, there’s a whole cultural process that it’s been difficult for me to undertake because I’ve written a lot, worked, travelled, played around. So I haven’t had time to read some of the extraordinary books that I still think about. But that will happen… And then, I would have liked to work with Judy Garland, who I nurture a mad passion for. But I was born too late, so no regrets.

You’ve been a privileged eyewitness to the history of music and cinema. What significant changes have you observed over the lasts 50 years?
In a narcissistic kind of way, I might say that I played a part in it. I changed film music during the New Wave era in France.  Then in the States. I added a great deal of movement, action, anticipation and daring. They were very good compositions that sometimes led to nasty moments when producers took fright and threw my compositions in the bin. Too bad. And there have been other composers and changes and I follow them all. I keep a constant track, like a boat moving along a rising river.

Jacques Demy called you a “fountain of music”. Does that mean it’s a never-ending flow?  
Had he been drinking when he said that? I think it’s never-ending because of my bristling curiosity. I’m always pushing the possibilities; I always ask myself up to what point I can go “too far”, as Cocteau used to say. I’m always looking further.  And yet I still feel as if I haven’t done much and as if I have a huge amount of work to do before I go off to another world. So I don’t sleep much, I work masses and I forge ahead and don’t worry about the rest. I write in the bath, at the dinner table, in bed and in planes. But I don’t think of it as work, I love it. Creation is pure happiness! When I’m not creating it makes me wonder what I’m doing here.

You recently admitted to a newspaper that you “had never played the piano so well”  
At the moment I’m working a lot so I’m on top form. Sometimes I even surprise myself. My improvisations are more interesting than they used to be and my technique has improved. Of course I’m getting better!

Can you tell us about your future projects?
A concert in Ramatuelle with the classical pianist Martha Argerich, and an album with the jazz guitarist George Benson. At the same time, I’m preparing a show on my material, to be performed in France and England next year. I’m writing an opera with Didier Van Cauwelaert, and I’ve started another with Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, and I’m composing an oratorio for voice and orchestra, which was commissioned by Nathalie Dessay. And all that’s on top of my concerts. I don’t have time to get bored.

Have you been affected by the bunch of awards received during your career?
It’s lovely and kind, but it’s like being given a lump of sugar or being soft-soaped. It does nothing to improve the quality of my music.

Michel Legrand, you remain something of an elusive to the general public. How would you describe yourself?
It’s true that there’s a kind of mystery surrounding me. When I do a concert, people aren’t really sure what’s going to happen – whether it will be jazz or classical, whether I’ll be on my own or accompanied by an orchestra. But I’m not an enigma, I’m just a man who really knows how to do his job and does it properly. And that’s all there is to it.