Bruckner's Eighth is a colossus.
— Zubin Mehta
Open rehearsals reach people who might not otherwise hear the Philharmonic - people on fixed incomes, people who can't move easily at night, students.
I sometimes feel it is to my disadvantage that I have not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra or the Boston or Chicago symphonies, but then I have had to sacrifice something in order to have enough time with my orchestras.
There are people who think I am Israeli. That's rubbish.
I am not only a Parsi, I am a Kashmiri too.
You might say that Richard Wagner was the Queen Victoria of Europe. He had musical children everywhere!
Israel gives the West Bank water twice a week! One way of promoting good would be not to ration water.
I just want to play for Hindus and Muslims that sit together. That's all I want to do.
One shouldn't know the future.
I miss the standard of the New York Philharmonic's playing very much. It has certainly been a high point in my life.
I'm hopeful that Israelis can go to Ramallah whenever they want and see how the people are living.
Just imagine, the thousands and thousands of concerts that take place every single day, all over the world. And the positive effect that they would have on the people listening. Now imagine a world without this. This void... it is unthinkable.
Wagner's philosophy had absolutely nothing to do with Bruckner. Bruckner hadn't written a single word against Jews. Wagner's book on the Jews was one of the most infamous books of the 19th century.
Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.
I think conductors do spend too little time with their orchestras.
I am jealous of all those people who live on the shore of Dal Lake.
I'm very much tied to the state of Israel, but I am against their policy of settlements in Palestine.
My tastes are Viennese.
I wish that only three residents of Tel Aviv could see what conditions on the West Bank are like. Living in such proximity, most Israelis have no idea about the adversity on the West Bank.
Let's try to count the number of Nobel prize-winners that have emerged from scientific centres of excellence like the Weizmann Institute and Haifa's technical university, the Technion. There has to be at least 25.
New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.
The amount of culture going on in a small country like Israel is amazing.
I love rap because it talks about pain that comes authentically from the ghetto. It moves me.
Some musical directors have more chutzpah. They pick up the phone and talk people into giving. I prefer to call and say 'thank you' after the money has been contributed.
An American orchestra doesn't want to play more than it has to. I respectfully disagree with that attitude.
It seems always to have been difficult to have been a New York Philharmonic conductor because of the nature of New York. We are in direct competition with the great orchestras in the world who come to play in our hall or in Carnegie, and we are constantly compared. I think that 's a good thing.
I have had bullets flying at concerts, but I don't want to talk about that.
Citizens of India, Pakistan, and Kashmir need to come together and make music.
I believe in music.
As long as they keep building settlements, the world will be anti-Israeli.
Israel is a piece of real estate that neither Jew or Arab will let go of; neither will leave these shores. And so they will have to learn to live together.
In Chicago, they die for their teams.
It's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music.
Rock music is predictable, unless there's great talent involved.
