'Tristan' is a very unique case, not just in Wagner's output, but in music in general. It remains contemporary no matter what else surrounds it. There is something self-renewing about it.

When playing music, it is possible to achieve a unique sense of peace.

Music is very abstract. When we talk about music, we're not discussing the music itself but rather how we react to it.

Children in schools need to have something to do with music and learn it the way they do literature, geography and biology.

I love conducting. What I'm tired of is music administration. I don't want that. I just want to make music.

I was never really interested in an operatic post, but I took on the Bastille because it seemed a unique opportunity to build an opera ensemble from scratch, and to deal with all the disciplines that go into opera - the music, the staging and the singing - in an interrelated way.