In addition to her work as a solo recitalist, Uchida performs as a concerto soloist, a chamber musician and a partner in Lieder recitals. In all these collaborative spheres she has had regular performing partners.

She recorded all the Mozart piano concertos with the conductor Jeffrey Tate, a professional relationship she describes as 'very tight'. Her especially close association with the German conductor Kurt Sanderling lasted until his retirement in 2002.

I first worked with him in 1986 when I was a soloist with the Philharmonia. He was unbelievably direct and straight. And kind to me, from the word go. I worked with him for 17 years, until he retired at the age of 89 and two thirds. I even happened to be the soloist at his last concert. At the time when the booking happened he probably didn't know it was going to be his farewell. It was much more than an honour. It was one of the most wonderful things that has happened to me. His combination of intelligence, honesty, integrity and modesty taught me so much.

Other conductors with whom she enjoys a special relationship include Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir Charles Mackerras, with whom she is expecting to work a great deal in the near future. And she has particular affection for Sir Colin Davis:

When you are playing some wonderful Mozart and you look up and see someone gaining so much joy from the music he is performing, Colin is unbeatable. If you can still do that when you are 75!

Uchida has performed chamber music (including solo string arrangements of selected Mozart concertos) with the Brentano Quartet, an ensemble she refers to as 'my children'. She met the quartet's first violin, Mark Steinberg, at the Marlboro Festival in 1992, and immediately thought about performing the Mozart violin sonatas with him, a project that finally came to glorious fruition in London 10 years later.

My only serious professional relationship with a singer is with Ian Bostridge. I take up five per cent of his concert-giving life. He takes up well over 90 per cent of my work with singers. Although I love the Lieder repertoire, it is very time consuming for a piano soloist, so the little time I can spare I want to reserve for him. We have done Winterreise in concert, and Die schöne Müllerin is coming up,* which we will also record. There is sometimes one cycle a singer is born to sing. And Ian Bostridge is the miller - I've always thought that.
* Performances took place in the 2003/04 season.

Interview by Brian Hunt