The work is the most important thing.

I came together with younger musicians and tried to pass on my own experiences. In the process, I always tried to maintain my curiosity and spontaneity.

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

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.

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

Admittedly, it is really our duty, as artists, to hold up a mirror to our own era; but, on the other hand, these works have lives of their own, and they're still alive today.

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