After working with Ligeti I began to hear Brahms and Beethoven differently. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share Image
If you think of the history, in the days of Brahms and Beethoven and all these guys, almost every concert was a new music concert. To play something old was really an exception. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share Image
There is something very special about this part of the world [U.S], which is the openness and the curiosity and the lack of prejudice… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
Every orchestra I know, every opera house I know, is desperately looking around trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting young composers,… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
After 30 years I have realized the greatest pleasure I can get is to have learnt. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
I started conducting lessons and I realized that this is actually something I like doing. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
We need new art. Old art cannot do that. It can do lots of other things, and of course humanity hasn't changed that much… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
I think we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet. But we are trying. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard. — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
Sometimes you spend nine months, 10 months, a year writing a piece that you will hear two years later or something like that, and… — Esa-Pekka Salonen Copy Share
