I understand you have a repertoire of over 60 concertos. Have you always had wide tastes?

Yes, for sure, but it’s also something that I grew up with. My teachers really encouraged me to learn a lot of repertoire and it’s so important when you’re young and studying and you learn very quickly.

Simone Lamsma. Photo © Otto van den Toorn

I think I was very lucky to learn repertoire before I really went out onstage, because of course once you start your career, often there isn’t so much time any more to study new repertoire. Now I’m able to just add several works each season and keep what I have in my fingers.

I’m assuming there are some unusual concertos in there. Can you tell me what attracted you to learn some of them?

I love playing all the well-known standards but there really is some repertoire out there that is just not played very often and which is harder to get programmed that is really, really worth it. For me, for example, Gubaidulina is a fantastic living composer. Of course, she’s often played, but I’ve had the pleasure to record her Second Concerto,...