My telephone interview in 1999 with Valery Gergiev started badly. When I asked him how the sound of the Kirov had changed since he had been at the helm he seemed to think that I was suggesting that standards had not improved. He came back at me affront...

One of the hottest tickets of 2005 was for the Berlin Phil conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Even at sky high prices they went like hot egg tarts and many experienced the excitement of a Berlin Phil concert out in the balmy May night air in front of a big...

It was in March 2009 that the legendary Maurizio Pollini made his Hong Kong debut in an all Chopin programme. To meet an artist of this stature is always a thrill and arriving at the hotel I quickly found myself in the familiar atmosphere of hushed and...

My interview with Bobby McFerrin was live and long distance. It was a public holiday, Chinese New Year 2004. He was soon to come to Hong Kong to perform at the Arts Festival. When I phoned on a balmy February Hong Kong morning he was in the middle of dinner in his snow bound Philadelphia home. Everything about him suggests the attitude he champions in his hit song ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’. He radiates a charm and a positive energy few are blessed with and when you are as talented as he is you have a winning combination. He is very spontaneous and is inspired in his collaborations whether with Yo Yo Ma, disadvantaged children in the neighborhood, or the audience itself, as we discovered during the 2004 Arts Festival here in Hong Kong.

Evgeny Kissin’s reputation preceded him when he made his Hong Kong debut in October 1998 in an all Chopin programme. As we talked I was soon struck by the feeling that his silences were not insignificant. His words, when they came, were enunciated with...

‘Is he an icon?’, asked my seven year old son as we strolled towards the Star ferry in TST. Somehow he had just learnt the word and was asking this question about everyone. On this occasion I replied that, yes, perhaps the giant image blazoned on the C...

‘Is he an icon?’, asked my seven year old son as we strolled towards the Star ferry in TST. Somehow he had just learnt the word and was asking this question about everyone. On this occasion I replied that, yes, perhaps the giant image blazoned on the Cultural Centre billboard could, indeed, be described as an icon. It was Isaac Stern in full flow. ‘The Legend Continues’, ran the caption, trailing the Mozart and Bruch concertos that were to be performed in a single programme.

I was struck by ‘the Legend’s very human qualities when I arrived to do an interview the next day. He was on the phone and motioned for me to make myself at home at a table laid for breakfast. His physical appearance, very small with a potbelly encircled by a formal trouser belt, was endearing. I could see why children were comfortable with him. At the same time I appreciated that I was in the company of an uncommonly keen and vigorous intellect.

Our conversation over coffee and croissants, before the interview, will always stay with me. It ranged from home and family to politics and world issues. A point he constantly returned to was the threat of fundamentalism, and his death, just days after 9/11, gave his words a disturbing resonance. He remained, however, an optimist. You had to be, he said, and then, accompanied by the occasional clink of a coffee cup, we turned on the recorder.

Famed for his having transformed the Houston Symphony Orchestra, my meeting with maestro Sergiu Comissiona took place around the time he was embarking on a happy and fruitful association with the Asian Youth Orchestra back in 1995. We touched on his ea...

Recorded in October 1995, this was my second interview with the renowned flautist. Listening back, it reminded me how fortunate and privileged I was for this hour or so, spent with one of the great musical personalities of the twentieth century. It is ...

Child prodigy violinist, Midori, got her break with the Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic at the tender age of eleven. Increasingly I have come to realize how, behind the success of many of these remarkable people there is the quieter presence ...