Uchida is a frequent visitor to museums and galleries, both in London and while touring abroad. As well as indulging her love of porcelain, she takes a typically selective interest in painting and sculpture.

I love Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Cézanne. I feel strangely drawn to Picasso and Mondrian. With Mondrian I cannot explain why, but he is close to my heart. Of the older artists, I have particular feeling for Pierro de la Francesca. I've never liked Raphael's Madonna and Child paintings - they are very beautiful, but mean little to me - but there are some wonderful portraits, particularly of men. Michelangelo is overpowering, of course, and Leonardo is remarkable, but apart from Pierro the one that I love so much is Titian. And within the past five years, Vermeer has been growing on me.

If I have, for example, a stint with an American orchestra, sometimes I'll arrive a day or two early and, apart from practising, I go to museums. Hotels are very bleak, and you have to do something for your soul. Sometimes I dash to a museum to get to the pieces I particularly love. Among these specially favoured artworks are sculptures by the wood carver Tilmann Riemanschneider (1460-1531), a contemporary of Dürer who became mayor of Würzburg and spent some months in prison. For me he shares qualities with Schubert.

Interview by Brian Hunt