I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment.

I think we still do have a PR problem in the sense that these institutions portray themselves quite often as a museum without the contemporary wing. For a young cutting-edge person, why would you get into that sort of business, which is very clearly geared towards dead or almost dead people?

Los Angeles is just a more open place. The way L.A. functions is that people give you a forum. They say, Show us what you can do.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

Every day we make more progress toward understanding the concert hall.

There's so much energy exchange [in conduction], so you get back a lot, of course, but you also have to give a lot. It's kind of high-energy thing.