Esa-Pekka Salonen

I'm still disturbed if a chord isn't together, but your priorities change as you get older.

The Northern idea of form is more of a process. The various units of the form overlap. You can't tell where some things stop and new things start. This is typical of Sibelius.

When we're at the end of The Rite of Spring or of a Bruckner symphony, I want people to feel the music physically.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

What makes knowledge automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.