I always maintain that playing in an orchestra intelligently is the best school for democracy. If you play a solo, the conductor and everybody in the orchestra follows you. Then, a few bars later, the main voice goes to another instrument, another group, and then you have to go back into the collective [sound]. The art of playing in an orchestra is being able to express yourself to the maximum but always in relation to something else that is going on.

The Germans are prisoners of their past.

Today, conducting is a question of ego: a lot of people believe they are actually playing the music.

The Steinway piano is such an incomparable instrument. Due to its virtues, I am able to express all my musical feelings.

Now the first step has to be taken, the step towards democracy. This step is full of risks, and requires trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But if we just stand still, we will have no chance of escaping the violence.

Germany will never be a real, free thinking and free feeling friend of Israel, because it will always fall under this shadow.

You can't expect someone born into a family with no music...to understand when I'm conducting the Schönberg Variations.