It is desirable that people make music on the breath, with the breath.

...in my lieder concerts, I always strove, when possible, to sing only the works of a single composer, so that the audience could be gradually drawn into a particular creative genius' way of thinking, and could follow him.

What concerns me, is the general social tendency to enforce a level, above which nothing rises and stands out.

Brahms believed that there was no need to publish absolutely everything that Schubert ever wrote.

When you go out onto the stage, all the preparation has to be forced into your subconscious. For the moment of the performance, we all have to return to a new level of unconsciousness. All the reflection and all the doubts have to be laid aside before you start.

But, on the other hand, if Schubert were alive today, he would find even richer fields to plow.

And what unity is to be had, at a time when orchestras are dying out, and when opera houses are about to close their doors; what's going to come next - when nothing new in music, for the orchestra, is truly lasting: pieces are performed once, and then they're thrown away.