From Toscanini I learnt the essential and desperate seriousness of making music.

I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss.

The joy of working with the Chicago Symphony was immeasureable.

Everyone says you have to be a specialist, and if you conduct Wagner you cannot conduct Mozart - this is nonsense.

From Toscanini I learnt the essential and desperate seriousness of making music.

My entire learning process is slow, because I have no visual memory.

I was born and trained to communicate music, just as the sons were born and trained to hunt, and I was lucky to have grown up in Hungary, a country that lives and breathes music-that has a passionate belief in the power of music as a celebration of life.