This is my house in Maida Vale, northwest London, where I’ve lived for 18 years and do all my composing. I tend to become reclusive when I compose, and stop all my conducting, my teaching and basically my social life for quite a long time. I work all day, even late into the night, until clarity appears suddenly.
It takes quite a lot of waiting, which I don’t enjoy. I don’t use any kind of electronic instruments to help me: I work slowly, in great concentration, and I’ve tried to make my inner ear as precise and demanding as possible I tend to do my composing at the top of house, in the attic, but this shot shows my living room, with a Yamaha grand