It’s too hard for me to choose just one! I think my favourite really depends on where I am in life. I have different pieces I return to for different reasons, but one that has particularly stayed with me is Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters.

I have a special connection with this piece, especially in the version with viola d’amore rather than the standard viola. This was actually Janáček’s original idea. Its distinctive, otherworldly sound brings a rawness and intimacy to the music that the standard viola doesn’t quite reach, and Janáček manages to express so much emotion without ever feeling overly sentimental. Every time I listen to it, I discover something new.

It’s much easier to answer which piece is my favourite to play. Here I have to give a special shout-out to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. There’s something about the way the nine solo parts weave in and out of each other that makes it feel less like performing and more like a conversation. It brings me joy every single time.

Definitely while commuting. As musicians, we often spend quite a lot of time travelling to rehearsals and concerts, so it’s the perfect opportunity to listen to a whole album, from something I already know and love to something completely new. I particularly enjoy listening to an album as a complete work and following its musical journey and narrative. It turns an ordinary part of the day into a special experience!

I promise it’ll strike a chord, no bass-ic excuses allowed.

I love visiting art galleries, going to concerts and the cinema, and travelling whenever I can. I also really enjoy quieter moments – sitting in a coffee shop, slowing down and recharging before diving back.

I think I would do something in the visual arts or film industry!

One of my most memorable moments as a musician was last summer, when I played for the first time at the ‘Chopin and His Europe’ festival at the Warsaw Philharmonic, a festival I had attended every summer while growing up. There was something quite surreal about suddenly finding myself on the other side of the experience. A place that had always felt so familiar and important to me as a listener suddenly became my workplace and my stage. It was a real pinch-me moment. One I feel whenever I join an ensemble or perform in a concert hall I’ve long known and admired from the audience.

I think it has to be Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performing with Sir Simon Rattle and Timothy Ridout at the Southbank Centre. They performed Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, with Timothy Ridout as the soloist in the latter. It was one of those concerts where you could feel the musicians genuinely having fun on stage. There was so much imagination, energy and detail in the performance, and Sir Simon Rattle conducted the Symphonie fantastique entirely from memory. An unforgettable experience!