It would be very tempting to say that why paint because we have Michelangelo, we have Leonardo [Da Vinci], we have all these guys. Why waste your time, because most likely you're not going to be on that level anyway.

I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.

In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences.

I think truth as an idea should be left to the philosophers and perhaps religious leaders and politicians, and professional people who deal with that idea.

Somehow, conductor as this superhuman conduit between the masters and the masterpieces and the immortals.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.