The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now.

As you know, there are certain languages that lend themselves very easily to vocal use.

So I've never found there was any particular separation between the two cultures at all, musically speaking.

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

I just wish, maybe, that I'd started conducting earlier. I was about 40 when I started. Apart from that I don't really have any regrets. Is that bad?

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.