The range of Auerbach's interests can be gauged from the CDs she has released on BIS. Tolstoy Waltz is a selection of solo piano music by Russian writers. "Tolstoy, Pasternak - they were all writing music at some point in their lives," she explains. Another disc features piano music written by Auerbach herself: 24 Preludes and Fugues for Violin and Piano.

The latest CD has as its centrepiece Auerbach's Sonata No 2 for Violin and Piano, Op 63, subtitled September 11. Auerbach had travelled from New York to Los Angeles on the same flight, on the previous day. "I was trying to get a ticket for September 11th and I was not able to," she says. The piece, she adds, expresses "everything from grief to anger to rage to hope - and, of course, tremendous sadness".

The new CD, Ten Dreams, will be available in July. "That's a very strange work," she says. "I was experimenting with stream of consciousness, and I was curious as to what would come out if I completely let it go. It sounds to me very much like a stream of nightmares, or visions. It's a rather special work for me."