I was there at the start of the OAE – not the very first meeting, perhaps, but I was on the panel when we put the first programmes together. It seems so quaint now, but at the time, it was shock! Horror! The very idea that we would play baroque and classical music in the same programme! What a huge step to take, playing Haydn and Telemann in the same concert! That’s how it felt at the time, anyway.

The thing for all players, but especially for wind players, is that if the orchestra is going to leap forward in time from the baroque era to (say) Beethoven symphonies, we have to find the right instruments for each period. In the 1980s there weren’t that many makers of classical flutes, so I ended up doing recordings on flutes which no student of mine would play now, because it wasn’t that easy to find alternatives. And every time the OAE breaks through a new boundary – like doing Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky with Vladimir Jurowski – we’ve had to address that.

Taking responsibility and exploring repertoire amongst ourselves felt like a very healthy thing to do. I hope it’s not too arrogant to say that we also brought a lot to our guest conductors – engaging with them, involving them in our artistic conversations and arguments. Maybe they thought we were quite stroppy at times – which I’m sure we were!