Not only has the eyes taken over, but we have anaesthetised the ears through all the muzak that we hear all the time.

Wagner exploited all forms of expression at a composer's disposal - harmony, dynamics, orchestration - to the extreme. His music is highly emotional, and at the same time Wagner has extraordinary control over the effect he achieves.

There are many types of silence. There is a silence before the note, there is a silence at the end and there is a silence in the middle.

I have the greatest respect for the survivors of the Holocaust. We can't even imagine what these people went through.

An Israeli who thinks that his government is doing everything right wouldn't join the Divan Orchestra in the first place.

In the long term, Israel's security rests on only one pillar: the Palestinians' acceptance of the country. It isn't the atom bomb that makes Israel secure.

But the ear, let us not forget, starts operating on the forty-fifth day of the pregnancy of a woman. Seven and a half months advance over the eye...(but) what do we do in our society, in our civilisation, to continue this process?