106 Quotes by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity.

In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences.

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.

Every day we make more progress toward understanding the concert hall.

The sound was my greatest concern. There were certain difficulties getting used to the way every musician can hear his or herself, the way each of them relates to the musician in the next seat.

Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect.

Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important.