Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.
I have always thought that my ear is also very influenced by my eyes.
We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.
Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.
If the audience walks out of a concert thinking, What a wonderful experience, then we have done our job.
We should welcome applause whenever it comes.
Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have a hard enough time just getting things right. Arguing is for string players.
The sheer force of the music calls for a wild audience reaction.
I think competition in any kind of activity like music, art, literature - anything that's not done with a timer - is actually impossible. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're entering the lottery. You're hoping that you play well (and that) you play your best on the day that you're heard, and you're hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.
When one plays a Steinway, there is a warmth and nobility in the sound that is unequalled by any other instrument.
If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.
I usually only play with very close friends.
I have been coming to Los Angeles since 1975 to perform.
Even if you don't like a concert of mine, please, please applaud at the end anyway.
Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.
Everybody makes his path differently.
How wonderful it is to play with someone you feel very close to.
I have been trying to find out exactly when listeners and performers decided that applause between movements would not be allowed, but nobody seems to have been willing to admit that they were the culprit.
It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.
All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!
Everyone is different. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary.
