On stage, I'm always nervous, but there is so much adrenalin, too. It's strange because I have to turn my back on the audience, and my audience is the orchestra. I communicate my energy to them, and they communicate it to the audience behind me!
I know that Boston is one of the great centers of intellectual culture as well as sport. It's one of the centers of America, with a great orchestra, great sports, great hospitals, and great universities.
For me, the main goal is loving music and experiencing the great music-making with the orchestra, which is the great reason why I conduct, and that is the main goal.
Music is such an important part of society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers such great quality, and we just want to share it.
I'm very proud of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
I want to take the great tradition of the orchestra within me, to take what the orchestra offers.
People talk very much about, 'What can we do with the orchestra in the 21st century?' We should think about the 21st century, of course.
It's so important which musicians we choose for being in the orchestra.
You could almost write an opera about the selection of music directors for orchestras. The intrigues are really interesting, and then, at the end, the results are completely unexpected.
I think touring is an important part of the life of an orchestra. Not only sharing with other audiences, but bringing that sense of family that you get back home. The sense of growing deeper into the music, of making it all sound like chamber music - that comes from being together on tour.
