»Musik ist Musik.«
»Der Geist der Musik liegt nicht in Noten, sondern außerhalb.«
»Nachdem ein Komponist die letzte Note geschrieben hat und er die Partitur zur Seite legt, beginnt das Werk selbst zu leben.«
»Musik reflektiert, was in der Gesellschaft passiert.«
»Die Musik darf nicht langweilen.«
»Music exists as sound, not on paper. It’s born in your head. If not, you might as well play it on a computer. It would be the exact reflection of the score – and complete rubbish.«
»You ask me if ›bad teaching‹ is to blame for the blandness we hear among pianists today, and I tell you that, if you have a personality, you cannot hide it. Like a strong tree fighting a storm, it will survive. Teaching gives you the means, the tools; but too many modern pianists just play the notes. Any monkey can play notes – it should be an impossibility for you to live without music.«
»Music is one of the most beautiful things in the world.«
»Music takes our time, our inner space and our thinking.«
»Everything is interconnected: music is close to people, who deal with higher matters: this is a kind of symbol of the universe. Well, everyone understands music without any decoding: people listen to Tchaikovsky in Japan, America and Germany. We tend to love this combination of tones and sounds. It’s a mystery why this is so.«