I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.
Esa-Pekka SalonenYou know, in some ways conducting is counter-intuitive. It's like winter driving in Finland - if you skid, the natural reaction is to fight with the wheel and jam on the brakes, which is the quickest way to get killed. What you have to do is let go, and the car will right itself. It's the same when an orchestra loses its ensemble. You have to resist the temptation to semaphore, and let the orchestra find its own way back to the pulse.
Esa-Pekka SalonenI think we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet. But we are trying.
Esa-Pekka Salonen