- I never made politics. Unless you consider culture as politics: I think we must sustain modernity. And, simply, I tried to open the doors of the theaters to anyone, not only in Milan. We cut the prices for the students, then I conducted La Scala Orchestra in the factories. And in Reggio Emilia, at the "Musica e Realtà" festival, we arranged meeting opened to anyone during the performance. There was people that not only, never listened to the music of Luigi Nono before, but neither the music of Beethoven.
- Musical history does not end with Puccini.
- I like the reaction of the audience. I'm not sincere if I don't say that, but it still embarrasses me to take bows. I'm not a showman. I hate all that.
- A conductor must consider himself first and foremost a musician. The whole idea of the conductor as some sort of god or dictator is absurd - especially as the age of the autocrat is now finished. [in an interview with The Scotsman newspaper]
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