The world-famous conductor, now 70, on family life in Berlin, why music keeps you young and the bleak outlook for the arts in Britain

The instruction was straightforward: “10.30am at home. Coffee and croissants.” Since timing, at least in part, is a conductor’s priority, a visitor feels the pressure – especially with the siren call of coffee – to be prompt. Simon Rattle lives on the edge of Grunewald, the expanse of forest and lakes to the west of Berlin, a haven for the prosperous who built villas there at the end of the 19th century, and a green lung for all Berliners today. I arrive a few minutes early – long enough to take issue with Christopher Isherwood who, in his Berlin Stories, complained about the “expensive ugliness” of the properties here, ranging from “the eccentric-rococo folly to the cubist flat-roofed steel-and-glass box”. Gables and turrets turn suburban houses into small castles, a reminder of Germany’s romantic folklore past. Fairy lights – we meet shortly before Christmas – accentuate that impression, with Rattle’s own front garden entering the spirit, complete with illuminated Bambis and skeins of bulbs winding round railings, gate and shrubbery.

Rattle is on the steps to greet me. Somewhat awed by the exterior’s gothic grandeur I jest: “Mad King Ludwig II?”, referring to Wagner’s patron, famous for building fantastical fortresses inspired by the composer’s operas. “Exactly!” Rattle agrees, chuckling. “Magdalena [Kožená, the Czech-born mezzo-soprano, his wife] and I laughed in disbelief when we first saw it – many years ago now. But it’s quite different inside.” He is right. This light-filled family home is indeed a welcome and informal sanctuary for the couple and their two sons and daughter. Two are still at school, one is a student in Milan. (Rattle also has two older sons from his marriage to Elise Ross, one a professional musician, the other an artist.) Children’s drawings are stuck on walls; a pinboard overflows with family photos. A fire, stoked by Rattle, roars in the hearth of an open-plan kitchen-dining room. When anyone wonders why Rattle continues to live in Berlin, this refuge is the answer. He has now taken German citizenship. “The three children have grown up here. School is here. Music lessons and football club and friends and forest are here. It’s all they’ve known.”