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" 'Pelleas et Melisande' is one of the saddest and most upsetting operas ever written. If you love the opera as I do, then you love it to pieces, obsessively. "

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires. "

" One of the most difficult things in opera is for people to suspend disbelief. "

Difficult Things

" Always the journey, never the destination. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" I've always loved French music. My parents adored it; my father played it on the piano. "

" My only interest is in sharing great music with more and more people. "

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

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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 Beethoven means dissonances to be more stressed than consonances - it's the shock tactician in him. "

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