When recordings replaced concerts as the dominant mode of hearing music, our conception of the nature of performance and of music itself was altered.

A cough is the basic sign of inattention. Musicians never, in my experience, cough when playing in public.

A love of classical music is only partially a natural response to hearing the works performed, it also must come about by a decision to listen carefully, to pay close attention, a decision inevitably motivated by the cultural and social prestige of the art.

What you have is a payoff when there's poor performance. But that's the nature of contracts. There's such a tremendous risk these days with being a CEO of a major corporation.

What you have is a payoff when there's poor performance, ... But that's the nature of contracts. There's such a tremendous risk these days with being a CEO of a major corporation.

Now I know what happens at a gig, I will be ready for it, next time--I will come in just a T-shirt and shorts and books, and fight my way to the front, like a quietly determined soldier, and then let the band take my head off. I want to walk into rooms like that every night, with a sense of something happening.