Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course.

I can't imagine how many first performances I've done, perhaps 500. Some of them have been very good, and some of course very bad.

The Northern idea of form is more of a process. The various units of the form overlap. You can't tell where some things stop and new things start. This is typical of Sibelius.

I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music.

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 always faster.

I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly.