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Steven Isserlis’s wise Twitter words

‘With or without jet-lag, I do like to start the day listening to Bach’s Welltempered Clavier (usually played by András Schiff). It provides an orderliness and deep calm which is a good basis from which to start a day which will almost certainly lack those qualities...’

‘Cellists are a nice bunch (mostly). Thinking back to my Wigmore Hall debut in 1977 (groan) – reaction was mixed. What cheered me most afterwards was a call from Marius May, then the most famous young cellist around, who told me in detail what he’d really liked about it. So kind.’

‘OTD in 1996, my beloved teacher Jane Cowan died. Charismatic, eccentric, impossible, possessed by music, she transformed so many lives through her teaching. Good to have her brought back to life (as “Joan Curwen”) in @Pnovelistgale’s forthcoming novel Take Nothing With You.’

‘I’m thrilled that @houghhough has recorded a short piece by my grandfather on his forthcoming CD. Coincidence, really: PH [pianist Stephen Hough] and I were having lunch just before he went to record. I asked if he might look at JI’S pieces, rushed around with a stack of them; and he chose my favourite!’

‘So it’s Valentine’s Day. I have occasionally played with friends a very silly game in which we try to sum up each composer in one word. For one composer, ‘love’ is almost always the answer: Beethoven. Not romantic love, but love of humanity/nature, a spirit full of profound love.’