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I think first thing and the most important thing, for me, is that Boston becomes my musical home, my musical family.
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Though involvement in music and the arts can't cure all the ills of society, I do believe that the inspiration they provide has the potential to help us reflect, at times, on the better angels of our natures.
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We can understand each other with music without words - and that's so important in these times when walls are built. In music, there are no walls.
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I'm thankful to Deutsche Grammophon, our partners - we are going to record the complete Shostakovich symphonies and hopefully some other things as well.
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I'm very proud of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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Some people will always gossip.
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To play opera, to play Wagner, it's a great joy.
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I think it's very important to be part of the Boston society and the people who live in Boston.
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I can't say I'd like to concentrate on one particular composer. I'm looking forward to doing a variety.
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You must take care of your family, respect the music, and work intensely. Health and family come first, and then you can make much better music.
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Music is such an important part of society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers such great quality, and we just want to share it.
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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.
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The excitement you can get in classical concert is as big, in a different sense, as you can get when you go to the ice hockey or baseball game.
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Music goes beyond nationalities - it's a language which you can understand in any country.
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Conducting is about communication. You don't play any notes, but you communicate with the musicians.
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It's a dream to be its conductor. Sometimes I think, 'My God, I can't believe it.' It's a dream which came true.
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It might be expensive to make music lessons available. But it's even more costly to deal with human beings who have half their intellect and spirit left undeveloped.
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Every week we have a concert, what we are performing is my favorite music in the world.
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Anyone who loves football can also be involved in music; the two aren't mutually exclusive.
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As for my relationship to Beethoven, I admire people who can say what they really think. It's as though he's saying, 'That's how I feel about the world, and I don't care what people may say.' His music is pure and honest. Beethoven never pretends to be anybody else.
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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.
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I want to take the great tradition of the orchestra within me, to take what the orchestra offers.
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Birmingham did a truly remarkable thing in building Symphony Hall, which is the finest concert hall in the U.K. and one of the best in the world. The city has supported music without putting on the brakes.
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You have a great result if the orchestra trusts the conductor, and the conductor trusts the orchestra.