“The retreat to the purely aesthetic in the past 30 years has led to a depressing lowering of the emotional and intellectual temperature of new music. We hear so many safe, high-gloss pieces that seem to have no urgent reason for existing. However, the good news is that the radical spirit hasn’t gone. It’s just that, as in pop music, you find it in people who might be old in years, but are marvellously young in spirit.”