As well as encouraging young people to think about the world behind the notes, Hugh Wolff tries to open the minds of hardened professionals.

I think I’ve actually gotten into trouble with professional symphony orchestras over this. I find I cannot conduct Also Sprach Zarathustra without talking for at least five minutes about Nietzsche. If you have no clue what Nietzsche wrote, and no idea what the three words ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ are about, then how can you play the piece? I’ve done this in front of some of the world’s most experienced orchestras who’ve played the piece a zillion times. I’ve probably ruffled a few feathers. But I’ve also had musicians come up to me afterwards and say, you know, no one’s ever said that to us. That was really fascinating and helpful.

The piece that Strauss wrote is very complicated, and very tightly bound to the book. Obviously the book had a huge impact on him or he never would have written the piece – and the book had a huge impact on most intellectuals in the 1880s and ’90s. How can we ignore that?

But we manufacture classical music without regard for these things – three quick rehearsals... There is an old joke about a conductor talking philosophically to an orchestral musician, who responds, ‘Tell me, do you want it fast or slow, loud or soft, short or long?’ And that’s often the situation. That is 90 per cent of the way classical music is prepared and performed. Of course musicians need to have practical experience of a wide repertoire. But I don’t think they always know why it’s there.

If I had to point to one thing that I find frustrating and wrong-headed in the orchestral industry it is the cynicism you get when you try to go in that direction.