In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahms's four symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep personal motivation to conduct specific pieces of music by renowned composers.
Zubin Mehta reveals his intrinsic motivation for becoming a conductor, indicating that his passion for conducting was significantly influenced by his desire to interpret and bring to life the works of Brahms and Strauss. This highlights the idea that personal aspirations and deep-seated passions can drive individuals to pursue their chosen paths in life.
In practice
In a speech about pursuing one's dreams, this quote can illustrate the importance of passion in career choices.
Go to the young conductors who are not making it, and you will hear how we shouldn't push ourselves or sell ourselves, how they don't have the right connections and the right opportunities. Well, you can be sure they've had the opportunities.
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.
If Hip Hop has the ability to corrupt young minds, it also has the ability to Uplift them.
In order to understand the history of the banjo, and the history of bluegrass music, we need to move beyond the narrative we've inherited, beyond generalizations that bluegrass is mostly derived from a Scotch-Irish tradition with influences from Africa. It is actually a complex Creole music that comes from multiple cultures.
You know, traditional country music is something that's going to be around forever... I'm not worried about it.
They're powerful, those songs. At times they've been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.
We may be sure that a genius like Mozart, were he born today, would write concertos like Chopin and not like Mozart.
In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.