106 Quotes by Esa-Pekka Salonen

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

There will have to be times when I'm not conducting because I'm composing. I haven't solved that problem, and perhaps I never will.

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.

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

After working with Ligeti I began to hear Brahms and Beethoven differently.

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

I feel very free and very happy to be a composer.

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

Los Angeles is just a more open place. The way L.A. functions is that people give you a forum. They say, Show us what you can do.