Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now..

So I've never found there was any particular separation between the two cultures at all, musically speaking..

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti..

As you know, there are certain languages that lend themselves very easily to vocal use..

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more..

If the (British) Arts Council give you money, they also tell you how to spend it..

I just wish, maybe, that I'd started conducting earlier. I was about 40 when I started. Apart from that I don't really have any regrets. Is that bad?.

Initially we performed in halls with capacities of 1,000..

There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate..

I would like new people with new ideas to come into it and change it..

Taste is changing, style is changing, and players abilities are changing..

If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians..

We don't want other people poking into our artistic pie..

I think the quality of something like the Beveridge, for instance, will have a life of its own..

The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less..