Open rehearsals reach people who might not otherwise hear the Philharmonic - people on fixed incomes, people who can't move easily at night, students.

I don't want to hear this as a vice, really what we do with our money. She didn't need to steal from us.

I am jealous of all those people who live on the shore of Dal Lake.

You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!

There is a school in Israel called Hand in Hand which I support. There Arab and Jewish students study together on a daily basis.

There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave. I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.