Mozart combines serenity, melancholy, and tragic intensity into one great lyric improvisation. Over it all hovers the greater spirit that is Mozart's - the spirit of compassion, of universal love, even of suffering - a spirit that knows no age, that belongs to all ages.

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.

Even experimental composers, revolutionary composers, self-styled radicals are, in writing revolutionary music, recognizing the music that preceded them precisely by trying to avoid it.

Success is all very well as long as you don't inhale.

The most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra is second fiddle.

The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial.

Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.