Daniel Barenboim

“More and more, we're used to taking things in through the eyes rather than through the ears, and opera is more of a spectacle.”

“You don't go out and play Beethoven's 'Opus 111' without having rethought about it every time you play.”

“There are many wonderful orchestras in the world, but very few who have a character or personality of their own. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of them, and I think it very important to recognize and respect that character.”

“Of course there is really vile anti-Semitism in Wagner's writings, but I can't accept the idea that characters like Beckmesser and Alberich are Jewish stereotypes in disguise. Would Beckmesser be a court councillor if he was meant to be a Jewish stereotype? No Jew could occupy such a role.”

“Every concert I've finished with the knowledge I've played a fistful of wrong notes.”

“What the world is saying to us human beings is, 'Don't stick to the old ways, learn to think anew.' And that's what musicians do every day.”

“The Iranian government still denies the Holocaust - so you can't take them seriously. And the Israeli government spreads rumours and disinformation about Iran - because it needs to for the creation of panic. I find these theological states - and in this respect, Israel and Iran are twin brothers - very, very dangerous.”

“We need to take music out of the ivory tower - both for musicians and for the public. Otherwise, classical music will not survive the 21st century.”

“Wagner is contrapuntal in a philosophical way as well as a musical way. What I mean by that is that every tendency has its opposite, and you see that in the man himself. He's a metaphysical hermaphrodite - he embraces hard and soft, masculine and feminine.”

“I feel that the Jews have always had a special connection to this part of the world, which in geographical terms was called Palestine for so many centuries.”

“When playing music, it is possible to achieve a unique sense of peace.”

“In the beginning, there was silence. And out of the silence came the sound. The sound is not here.”

“I am convinced that 100 years from now, people will talk about Elliott Carter as one of the most important figures in the second half of 20th-century music.”

“The tempo is the suitcase. If the suitcase is too small, everything is completely wrinkled. If the tempo is too fast, everything becomes so scrambled you can't understand it.”

“I don't like possessions.”

“I think that our civilisation is very much a visual civilisation - television and videos and all this.”

“'Tristan' is a very unique case, not just in Wagner's output, but in music in general. It remains contemporary no matter what else surrounds it. There is something self-renewing about it.”

“I think the most important thing for a listener is to realize that he, too, should not listen to music in a passive way; that if you sit in a concert hall and expect to be moved or taken off your seat by the music, it will not happen.”

“For many people, music is here to let them forget the daily chores of life.”

“Sound is often talked about in a very subjective way, as if it had a colour. This is a bright sound, this is a dark sound. I don't believe in that because I think that is much too subjective.”