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

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

" Conducting 'Tristan' is like floating in amniotic fluid, but having worked on it for three months, I now know why people who go near it go so strange. "

" 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. "

" The jazz records come out a lot. You find that with many musicians - we don't listen to our own music for relaxation. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" Learning music is a birthright. And you have to start young. "

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

" 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. "

" American economists can't understand the German fear of inflation and the effects of inflation when dealing with the world economic crisis. They wonder why Germany pursues such a different course - 'Why can't they agree with us?' I would have thought it was fairly obvious. "

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

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

" Nobody has Francis Bacon on their walls in their house - or very few people - but sometimes people listen to Beethoven as though it was background and a comfort, and I think that is very dangerous. "

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

" What really counts isn't whether your instrument is Baroque or modern: it's your mindset. "

" The grapevine in England is an extraordinary thing. When there is a really brilliant young composer or soloist, we all hear about it. "

" Always the journey, never the destination. "

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

" 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.' "

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

" Beethoven was always too much. He's not slightly anything - he's very everything. "

" I was a harpsichordist in my teens, and there was a bunch of us in Liverpool who got together every week to play Bach. "

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

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

" There is a mysterious way in which orchestras keep a sense of their history and what they've done. I still listen to the L.A. Philharmonic and feel that Giulini was there. "

" 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. "

" I believe if you're not completely in love with what you're doing, you'd better find another profession. "

" My worst and best qualities are rashness: the good part of it is due to youth, which is, of course, why I'm not a great 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. "