Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that.
Esa-Pekka SalonenWith American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.
Esa-Pekka SalonenWe need new art. Old art cannot do that. It can do lots of other things, and of course humanity hasn't changed that much in the last thousand or two thousand years.So that the old Greek dramas are still at the very heart, core, of human experience, but still we need new stuff.
Esa-Pekka SalonenOrchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.
Esa-Pekka SalonenComing from a sort of very rigid European type of training to this culture which is just a little more open - a lot more open, and kind of curious, and asking different sorts of questions.Because the problem for me was that the European modernist movement in the '70s was all about right or wrong. Some things were right and you were dealing with the truth, as it were, and then some things were wrong and therefore not allowed.
Esa-Pekka Salonen