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

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.

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

I was starting a group of musicians and we had a group of young composers in Finland back in the '70s, and the real conductors, the professional conductors at the time were not interested in our stuff.

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

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

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.