Conductor William Christie has a cult following in his adopted France. But Peter Conrad discovers a dispeptic soul who gives no quarter. “A recent book by a French critic pays reverent homage to what it calls l’église Christique – the Church according to Christie not Christ. I didn’t imagine, when I set off to meet him in Paris, that I was going to encounter a redeemer or saviour. I’d have been grateful, however, for a little milky human kindness.”