"Way too much is being made of conductors and conducting. Being a conductor myself, I do have some knowledge of the empty hype that goes with this profession. But only I can write my music. There's no one else who can do it for me.... The most important function of a conductor is that of developing local musical life. Conductors should be what they used to be — spokespeople for music in their home town.''
— Esa-Pekka Salonen, via ionarts
"With all of the articles we read these days about the declining popularity of classical music, the fact is that we are living at a time when a new generation of great performers, conductors and composers, like John Adams, Thomas Adès, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Alarm Will Sound, the Arditti Quartet, Bang on a Can, Ian Bostridge, Osvaldo Golijov, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Gidon Kremer, the Kronos Quartet, Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Dawn Upshaw and many others, (disclosure: some of these artists have recorded for my company), are participating in the creation of a new and original classical music landscape, one that belongs to its generation, just as the classical world of Bernstein, Horowitz, Karajan and Rubinstein belonged to its generation. It is a thrilling time to be a part of the classical music audience."
— Robert Hurwitz, via Der Stehplatz
