The task is to influence and create a reaction in the audience. In my opinion, any reaction of a human being in the audience, I think this is great. It means we touched the person’s soul. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
The excitement you can get in classical concert is as big, in a different sense, as you can get when you go to the ice hockey or baseball game. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
The Boston Symphony is one of the best orchestras in the world and has such a great tradition – which I want to cherish, of course, and to learn from and to continue and to add whatever I can add. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
As for my relationship to Beethoven, I admire people who can say what they really think. It’s as though he’s saying, ‘That’s how I feel about the world, and I don’t care what people may say.’ His music is pure and honest. Beethoven never pretends to be anybody else. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
I always see Beethoven as having been influenced by Haydn. Yet he started a revolution – not just to be different, but also because he lived in a revolutionary era. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
All composers who came after were influenced by Beethoven, even during his lifetime, both by his personality and by his music. He was a father figure for generations. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
The Soviet Union had only one party. You couldn’t express yourself freely; you couldn’t admit belief in God. And yet this terrible regime understood that human beings have to express themselves, through music, even at a bad level. All kids studied music automatically, just as they did maths or languages or sport. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
It might be expensive to make music lessons available. But it’s even more costly to deal with human beings who have half their intellect and spirit left undeveloped. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
Birmingham did a truly remarkable thing in building Symphony Hall, which is the finest concert hall in the U.K. and one of the best in the world. The city has supported music without putting on the brakes. Andris Nelsons Read Quote
