Back then, we were still very experimental and making some quite weird noises – trying to find the right strings, even trying to find the right pitches, and making the strings and pegs of our instruments behave. Jan Schlapp introduced me to the English Concert, and once I was in that, it was a passport to being in everything. There was so much recording work going on at that time, because all the labels wanted their own period instrument groups.

But when we launched the OAE, there was very much a sense that it was a players’ orchestra. The good players were in demand everywhere, so we had to be flexible. For instance, there were a lot of young mothers in the OAE when it started, so we deliberately didn’t go out looking for touring work. But one of the best things about the OAE starting was that it provided a vehicle for continental conductors like Franz Bruggen and Gustav Leonhardt to infuse what they were doing into the British scene.

By then, all the same people were playing in the same British groups and it was actually getting a bit inbred. It was really, really exciting to just be shaken up. And then we got to work with people like Charles Mackerras and Simon Rattle. A lot of us knew Rattle already, and he’d always been up for new sounds and colours. The first chord of the first rehearsal always sounded a bit horrific – he’d look a bit cross-eyed and in agony. But it always got better, very, very quickly!