How the work of Wagner changed the way in which this conductor saw the world.

What was your first experience of Tristan?

For a young conductor the Prelude and Liebestod is a thing that you study inside out for courses and competitions. Having performed the Prelude many times, and worrying about this detail and that, the first time I performed the opera with the Liceu in Barcelona I remember coming to the end of the first act and, in between all of the others things I was processing, having this flash and thinking: “you know, by this time you just don’t care about the Prelude anymore.” It’s not that it isn’t important, but you get a much longer sense of what the range of the piece is. I think this is always the surprise when people come to Tristan for the first time and realise just what a magnificent arch it is; how it tells the story over a long period of time; and how brilliantly the musical metaphor of the Tristan chord (this unresolved chord that needs to go someplace but doesn’t have a clear point of arrival) is such a beautiful metaphor for the story. It’s...