Essentially, the [New York] Philharmonic is just like any other orchestra-they all have the spirit of kids, and if you scratch away a little of the fatigue and cynicism, out comes a 17-year-old music student again, full of wonder, exuberance and a tremendous love of music.

The New York Philharmonic is a tremendous opportunity, a great orchestra.

The musicians and we know that this is important to the future of the New York Philharmonic and of classical music.

The 'New York Times' reviews of my work have been evenly divided - favourable and unfavourable.

It seems always to have been difficult to have been a New York Philharmonic conductor because of the nature of New York. We are in direct competition with the great orchestras in the world who come to play in our hall or in Carnegie, and we are constantly compared. I think that 's a good thing.

New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.