Life without music is unthinkable. Life without music is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.

When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer.

The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm

Mozart's music is constantly escaping from its frame, because it cannot be contained in it.

The 20th century has been a badly written drama, from the beginning.

I hate you, Richard Wagner . . . but I hate you on my knees.

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.