A lot of people get impatient with the pace of change.
Its just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.
Art has never been a popularity contest.
Fate is a misplaced retreat. Many people rationalize an unexplained event as fate and shrug their shoulders when it occurs. But that is not what fate is. The world operates as a series of circles that are invisible, for they extend to the upper air. Fate is where these circles cut to earth. Since we cannot see them, do not know their content, and have no sense of their width, it is impossible to predict when these cuts will slice into our reality. When this happens, we call it fate. Fate is not a chance event but one that is inevitable, we are simply blind to its nature and time.
I grew up in an era where an orchestra was like a treasure chest.
It was just that we had this phenomenal honeymoon relationship that just kept on going.
I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight
There is no relationship between the gestures and what an orchestra will do.
At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching.
Everybody blames the culture without taking responsibility.
We're in the midst of an evolution, not a revolution.
I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment
So, the total number of hours spent on the stuff you have to do to take care of a family, working and caring for stuff at home, the total number of hours is actually about the same for mothers and fathers.
And, over the last thirty years we have seen men's participation in both housework and childcare has increased and women's have stayed at about the same.
It wasn't that I ever knew I'd be at the Met for 20 years, or 30 years, or 40 years, or anything like that
My hunch is that probably men are doing more both outside the home and inside the home
I think this orchestra's strengths involve drama and voice.
Great cataclysmic things can go by and neither the orchestra nor the conductor are under the delusion that whether they make this or that gesture is going to be the deciding factor in how it comes out.
I have a big problem with conductors who gesture a lot.
Working mothers do an hour more per day than working fathers do and working mothers do on average an hour more per day with the kids than working fathers do.
The Steinway pianos of today are the finest I have ever played.
Employee fathers need to step up to the plate and put their family needs on the table.
And so, little by little, I gradually divested myself of pretty nearly all of the guest conducting I used to do, because I was at the same time working in the places like the Met, where I could work in this sort of depth.
As major orchestras around the world are gripped in various kinds of crises and upheaval, we need to be sure that we are bringing up this new generation.
I can imagine wanting to work with this ensemble and this company always.
