Esa-Pekka Salonen quotes

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer, renowned for his innovative approach to classical music. His leadership roles at major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra, have earned him international recognition. He continues to influence the world of music through his performances and new compositions. Here are 37 of his quotes:

Orchestras have become used to the emphasis on the separation of layers, of the ultimate precision and clarity. (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
Every day we make more progress toward understanding the concert hall. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
The players never think they project enough. In a hall that seats 3,300 people, it's a very scary thing to play so quietly that you can barely hear yourself. (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
This conducting thing happened. In 1983 I was sucked into this international career, which was a very scary experience. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
This country, and the West Coast, especially, is bad at preserving any cultural legacy. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
I feel very free and very happy to be a composer. (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen
I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky. View quote
Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen - Image
Photo: Louisa Dedalus, CC BY-SA 3.0
Occupation: Finnish Musician
Born: June 30, 1958
Quotes count: 37