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" 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. "

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" 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. "

Simon Rattle

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Career

Music

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

" Every orchestra has its own sound. "

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

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

Simon Rattle

Community

People

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

" Always the journey, never the destination. "

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

Simon Rattle

Think

Need

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

" Oh Lord... I don't really do pride. "

Simon Rattle

Really

Pride

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" In England, unless I am mistaken, I think some of the politicians who love classical music and opera are a bit loath to be seen there in case people think it is elitist. That is a real shame because it also means we are not allowing our politicians a hinterland that an earlier generation, a Denis Healey, would have taken for granted. "

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

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

" Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires. "

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

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

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

Simon Rattle

Symphony

Watch

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

" 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. "

" 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. "