I think that I need to learn a lot, a lot.

I set out to create a means whereby music could be a way of vindicating the rights of the masses.

I think the atmosphere of a Prom concert can change your life, in the best way. It's so deep, the feeling you have there. The audience is so close, and there are so many of them, that you feel they are almost embracing you.

When you play Mozart, it's so clean, it's so simple. It's the body naked.

The challenge is not so much to change the sound. The challenge is to connect and to create something special.

I think it's a very important collaboration between the conductor and the orchestra - especially when the conductor is one more member of the orchestra in the way that you are leading, but also respecting, feeling and building the same way for all the players to understand the music.

My relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra brought me many times to London and I will always reflect positively on that early period of development with them - their patience, their warmth, their dedication.