There is a masochism that is intrin­sic to clas­si­cal musi­cal per­for­mance, and there are a lot of weird inter­nal psy­cho­log­i­cal posi­tions inhab­it­ed and occu­pied by the clas­si­cal musi­cian that don’t often get air­play or visu­al­i­sa­tion. Except maybe in opera; opera can bring into pal­pa­ble life some of the sexy crazi­ness. When I play the piano, and when I lis­ten to it, I feel all of the stuff that Theo is putting into sex­u­al and melo­dra­mat­ic terms. For me, it is a bloody and vis­cer­al sport….I like lit­er­a­ture that treats sex as an abstract, almost con­cep­tu­al per­for­mance piece. Every­thing from Mar­quis de Sade to the nov­els of Jean Genet or Den­nis Coop­er; it’s a gay tra­di­tion, there’s a per­vert tra­di­tion of erot­ic lit­er­a­ture that push­es eroti­cism towards the implau­si­ble. I don’t write sex scenes, I write about them as per­for­mance feats.

Read the full interview here.