I can't even touch another conductor's baton. The center of gravity, the feel of the handle, puts me totally off.

Baton technique is to a conductor what fingers are to a pianist.

I don't like to hurry. I'm not a conductor of the fast, fiery romantic type. I prefer Bruckner, with the sincerity of his musical language and the huge time spans in which his ideas develop, to Mahler, with his hysteria and self-indulgence.

provide the center of gravity for it.

There's a certain gravity in Stokes, due to the situations I have to handle.

We were going to donate something. This puts a personal touch on it.