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.

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.

I don't believe in an annual dose of film music for the sake of it being film music. If we program film music, it will be because there is a real artistic reason for doing so.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

When we're at the end of The Rite of Spring or of a Bruckner symphony, I want people to feel the music physically.