The cellist is playing Dvořák with the MSO, but consider him as dwelling in the past at your peril.

Was the cello a natural and first choice for you?

No, my dream was the voice. I wanted to be like my mother, a singer. But I hated my voice, which brought me to the next best thing, the cello.

Which great players inspired you as a student?

My first hero on the cello was Casals, then Rostropovich.

In Melbourne you are playing the Dvořák concerto, one of the pinnacles of the repertoire. What strikes you as its most compelling features?

For me the Dvořák is one of the most personal concertos I can think of, maybe together with the Elgar. Dvořák even changed the ending of the piece when he heard about the death of the love of his life, Josephine, his sister-in-law (she didn’t want him so he married her sister instead!). Already in the second movement he quotes her favourite song (Leave me Alone, how telling…), and for me the most touching moment of the piece comes at the end, when he quotes the song again, this time in the solo violin. This piece is for me mainly about loss, homesickness...