If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians.

Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now.

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

I had no money, ... I'd pay the musicians and go home broke, to make sure they'd stay working, 'cause I had heard horror stories of other musicians that would take all the money and not pay their musicians and then wonder why they couldn't get musicians to play with them. I wasn't gonna become one of those musicians.

At the risk of sounding hopelessly romantic, love is the key element. I really love to play with different musicians who come from different cultural backgrounds.