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

I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly.

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

The Northern idea of form is more of a process. The various units of the form overlap. You can't tell where some things stop and new things start. This is typical of Sibelius.

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.

I always felt that one day I would have to make the change in my own life, bite the bullet and see what it is to be a composer who conducts rather than the other way around.

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