I have friends who have a CD mastering plant in Hollywood and they are very sceptical about European record labels' understanding of digital technology.

The virtuoso element in jazz playing, all those very fast runs in the upper extremes, simply doesn't appeal to me. That's why I don't want to make my concerto "virtuosic" in the sense of a technical show-off. I want a beautiful sound and a melodic and lyrical line. I am more interested in the way someone can play musically.

I currently spend a lot of time thinking about orchestration and every detail of a piece.

Craft is part of the creative process.

One thing I'm doing on the new Titanic recording is actually bringing in different acoustic spaces.

The academic area of new music or modern music festivals is not something which attracts me at all.

As I had collaborated with visual artists before whether on installations, on performance pieces, in the context of theatre works and as I had taught for a time in art colleges the idea of writing music in response to painting was not alien.