Daniel Müller-Schott: ‘I practise very slowly. You can look at the piece like through a microscope’

When do you get up?

That depends. Very often I have to get up early to catch a flight, because I like to be at the place where I’m performing as early as possible. I take out the cello at the airport to warm-up a bit. Otherwise I get up around 9.30, go jogging, have breakfast, and have a slow warm-up.

When do you go to bed?

When I play a concert, it’s very late. after a concert I like to eat, so not until midnight or after. If I don’t have a concert, maybe around 11.

Do you have a morning routine?

I start the day with a Bach movement, or études or scales. I jog in the morning and sometimes in the evening, too. I have stretching exercises. As a musician you use your muscles very intensely, so you have to find a way to balance yourself again, and release and relax the muscles.

What do you have for breakfast?

I like to eat lots of fruit. So when I’m at home, I make a smoothie, and I like to eat cereals and toast. That’s it. And I love tea, all kinds of tea, green tea, mint tea, herbal tea.

What’s your daily work routine?

Administration, takes up a lot of time, talking to my agent, preparing my schedule. I like to concentrate on different repertoire, reading and reading about the history of the music I’m playing. Of course you sit at the computer a bit, replying to e-mail. I always try to spend not less than two or three hours with the instrument. I also try to practise when I’m travelling. Continuity is very important so that you feel completely at home on the instrument. When I go on holidays and don’t play for maybe five days, I really feel it. I like to practise very slowly. You can look at the piece like through a microscope. Everything gets bigger, more clear, all the transitions that are so important in the Dvorak concerto, you get the sense of timing that you wouldn’t have at normal speed.

Your routine for concerts?

I always arrive an hour in advance. I eat a banana. It calms the nerves. Then I do my warm-up, look through some difficult or interesting passages, and then I’m ready to go on stage and enjoy the music.

Your routine for recordings?

In the studio you’re with other musicians and a producer who would like to repeat some things, and I’m there with my own ideas about the interpretation. It’s a whole mix of conversations. I don’t have a routine for it. Each recording is so different you have to be quite flexible.

What do you do for relaxation?

I like to meet up with friends and play soccer with them, have a meal together, and see my family in Munich, do things to clam down again. I like to visit museums for paintings. Art and architecture are a great interest - my uncle is an architect, and when I was growing up there was lots of talk about historical buildings. When I travel, I can see those. A few months ago in St Petersburg, I was able to see all those historical palaces. I read a lot when I travel, and I go to the cinema regularly.

The place of technology in your life?

The attitude today is that everyone thinks you’re reachable the whole day. You have to be very careful - and strong, sometimes - to switch off the phone, and switch off everything, and just concentrate on the music. I didn’t grow up with mobile phones, and I had time to really focus on the music, to be isolated and concentrate on the cello. Today, everything is so fast, it’s so easy to get access to the Internet, to Skype with each other. You have to be careful. As a musician, you need the time to reflect, to get deeper into the score and the music. Modern technology can be distracting. You need to find a balance.

Daniel Müller-Schott plays the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Alan Buribayev in Galway on Thursday (Oct 9) and Dublin on Friday (Oct 10). After the Dublin concert he plays in a late-night (10pm) programme with the cellists of the NSO