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

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

I can't stand being in Chicago anymore and hearing the Brahms Violin Concerto in the elevator. Because that shows me that when they come to the concert hall they listen to it in the same way.

Anti-Semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-Semitism is a disease.

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.

Music has the capacity to create a greater reality.

And in English you have this wonderful difference between listening and hearing, and that you can hear without listening, and you can listen and not hear.