Emanuel Ax Quotes

When one plays a Steinway, there is a warmth and nobility in the sound that is unequalled by any other instrument.

I have been trying to find out exactly when listeners and performers decided that applause between movements would not be allowed, but nobody seems to have been willing to admit that they were the culprit.

All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!

Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.

If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.

Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have a hard enough time just getting things right. Arguing is for string players.

Everyone is different. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary.

The sheer force of the music calls for a wild audience reaction.

Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.

I think competition in any kind of activity like music, art, literature - anything that's not done with a timer - is actually impossible. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're entering the lottery. You're hoping that you play well (and that) you play your best on the day that you're heard, and you're hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

We should welcome applause whenever it comes.

We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.