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" Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires. "

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" I first heard Mahler's second symphony aged 11 in Liverpool, and it inspired me to become a conductor. "

" I was thrilled that Sadiq Khan was so in support of the idea of culture being at the centre of a city and the idea that it is everyone's right. It can't be a matter of privilege or chance. It should be something everyone can have in their life, and that means knowing what it is. "

" With these big Wagner pieces, if I haven't started three years before, I'm screwed. You need time to look at the piece again and again and again, and then, like some fantastic casserole or spaghetti sauce, put it back in the fridge and let the flavours get together. "

" There are a few great orchestras in the world, thank goodness. Although some people do put them in ranking order, it's not like a snooker match. Each orchestra has different things to offer. "

" As an older dad you can certainly get down on the floor. The problem is can you get up again? "

" Germans have an understanding of history and cannot allow themselves to forget it. It may be a curse, but in some ways, it's a blessing. It makes them cautious. "

" If you receive a whole string of bad reviews, you have to say, 'O.K., maybe there's something here we should pay attention to.' "

" I love Mozart, but I often make a terrible hash of it. "

" Some of my favorite music in the world is Haydn. I had a sabbatical one year and made myself one promise: to play a different Haydn piano sonata each day - they are inexhaustible treasures. "

" Passionate musicians only come from passionate five-year-olds. "

" You don't like Liverpool: you either loathe it or you love it. And I don't know anyone who loathes it and comes from it. "

" If you think the music business is the be-all and end-all of life, you're in big trouble. "

" In my mid-twenties, I was with a conducting career, but I had never been to university and I wanted to. There were things I wanted to study in depth. I also wanted to see if I could survive without music. "

" I've always had a profound conviction that great music is about joy, even in the face of tragedy. "

" As a nation, we English tend to be self-deprecating, looking down on ourselves. We're insular but also flexible, whereas in Germany, it's a case of besser wissen - we know better. That's very Deutsch. People are never frightened to tell you what you're doing wrong, in a way that would never happen in England. "

" Orchestras are like people. They're the sonic embodiment of their community. "

" I think the English are an unbelievably musical nation and always have been. "

" We need to bring music to the people, even to those who normally do not listen to classical music. "

" I am old enough to remember the enormous fight over Tate Modern. It is such a part of our cultural landscape now, we forget the opposition to it. "

" Sometimes, musicians worry too much about how beautifully they are playing. "

" The better the orchestra, often the harder it is to conduct, not the other way around. "

" Yes, I was a weird duck, no doubt. "

" I'd be much more likely to watch the latest Tarantino movie than to listen to a Mahler symphony. "

" You would never train people to play football by telling them to watch football. You make them play football. "

" As a Liverpool boy, it is impossible not to think of the Beatles' question, 'Will you still need me when I'm 64?' "

" Every orchestra has its own sound. "

" Conductors make too much fuss about conductors! Humility and hard work are virtues. We're nothing without our musicians. "

" It's interesting: composers can be very funny ducks. "

" I think we will find more and more ways in which technology invades our artistic spaces, so music is something you will need more than ever because it is there in time and in space and for that moment only. "

" We have to be evangelists for music. We couldn't just be high priests of music. "