“All of us in the field must remain constantly vigilant and fight against all types of inappropriate and hurtful behavior and continue the essential work of creating a fair and safe work environment for all classical musicians.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Being appointed as the next Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester is a completely overwhelming honour. This extraordinary orchestra and its wonderful musicians are unique in so many respects, and particularly in their creation of an exceptional sound world based on outstanding tradition that is, at its heart, inspirational.”
― Andris Nelsons
“You have a great result if the orchestra trusts the conductor, and the conductor trusts the orchestra.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I really think that the music is the food for our souls.”
― Andris Nelsons
“When you have a great car, you want people to see the car.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Some people will always gossip.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Music is something so mystical, so unexplainably a thing you cannot put in the rules or boundaries, you know? It speaks about our feelings about questions of life and death. It goes absolutely beyond any kind of rules.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I see, in this life, the hardship many suffer. I see the joy that music can give. How we deal with all this is part of a preparation for the next life.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Music is a universal thing with no boundaries, whether you play inside or outside.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I think music can change your life.”
― Andris Nelsons
“The music of Bach is so timeless, so fulfilling. You don’t feel like you have to be in front of it. The music has everything, and you are there to find the balance when you conduct. You don’t have to give too much of your individuality. It’s Bach, so it’s dangerous to get in the way.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I know that Boston is one of the great centers of intellectual culture as well as sport. It’s one of the centers of America, with a great orchestra, great sports, great hospitals, and great universities.”
― Andris Nelsons
“For me, the main goal is loving music and experiencing the great music-making with the orchestra, which is the great reason why I conduct, and that is the main goal.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Music is such an important part of society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers such great quality, and we just want to share it.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Music is something you can’t really put in terms like in a sport, like running or football – that you win if you score more. In music, there’s nothing like that.”
― Andris Nelsons
“It’s a dream to be its conductor. Sometimes I think, ‘My God, I can’t believe it.’ It’s a dream which came true.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Music goes beyond nationalities – it’s a language which you can understand in any country.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I’m thankful to Deutsche Grammophon, our partners – we are going to record the complete Shostakovich symphonies and hopefully some other things as well.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I’m very proud of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I want to take the great tradition of the orchestra within me, to take what the orchestra offers.”
― Andris Nelsons
“As a trumpet player, I was playing Xenakis, Lindberg: very challenging, technical, atonal, and I enjoyed it.”
― Andris Nelsons
“People talk very much about, ‘What can we do with the orchestra in the 21st century?’ We should think about the 21st century, of course.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Every week we have a concert, what we are performing is my favorite music in the world.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I think it’s very important to be part of the Boston society and the people who live in Boston.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I can’t say I’d like to concentrate on one particular composer. I’m looking forward to doing a variety.”
― Andris Nelsons
“The two most important things is, one, the music in my life, and the family. It’s somehow connected because music is about human beings, about love, about hate, about everything that happens in life.”
― Andris Nelsons
“It’s so important which musicians we choose for being in the orchestra.”
― Andris Nelsons
“You could almost write an opera about the selection of music directors for orchestras. The intrigues are really interesting, and then, at the end, the results are completely unexpected.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I think first thing and the most important thing, for me, is that Boston becomes my musical home, my musical family.”
― Andris Nelsons
“We can understand each other with music without words – and that’s so important in these times when walls are built. In music, there are no walls.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I’m sure the atmosphere at Tanglewood and the space there and nature – I think it absolutely fits Wagner’s music.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I’m European, and my roots are in Europe. But Boston is one of the most, in a way, European American cities. And I think I’ll find a lot of similarities, historically and architecturally and tradition-wise.”
― Andris Nelsons
“For one person, Haydn is most exciting. Or Bach is the most exciting. For another, it’s Carter or Strauss. For me – and for any musician – all of the music is exciting. And if you don’t approach it with excitement, we can’t be musicians.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Though involvement in music and the arts can’t cure all the ills of society, I do believe that the inspiration they provide has the potential to help us reflect, at times, on the better angels of our natures.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Bernstein was everywhere – Vienna, London – and everyone admired him. Of course he loved Boston, and he did so many great things at Tanglewood. He was the best example of what a conductor should be.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Shostakovich was one of the great symphonists of all time, and maybe the last great symphonist.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I think touring is an important part of the life of an orchestra. Not only sharing with other audiences, but bringing that sense of family that you get back home. The sense of growing deeper into the music, of making it all sound like chamber music – that comes from being together on tour.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Conducting is about communication. You don’t play any notes, but you communicate with the musicians.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Through conducting, you express through your arms, through your face and even the body, what you want to tell, so the musicians of the orchestra understand.”
― Andris Nelsons
“AWe musicians can influence, and are responsible to influence, human hearts when we perform. We have to touch them.”
― Andris Nelsons
“You don’t have to make a grand, exaggerated sound to sing opera.”
― Andris Nelsons
“You must take care of your family, respect the music, and work intensely. Health and family come first, and then you can make much better music.”
― Andris Nelsons
“If we want to share the message of the composers, to give good things back to humanity, we have to dig deep while we can.”
― Andris Nelsons
“When the oldest surviving record company goes all in on a conductor, everyone notices.”
― Andris Nelsons
“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
“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
“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
“I simply love Wagner’s music. That actually started very early. He was the first composer I was exposed very much to because my parents introduced me to Wagner’s music very early.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I think ‘Rheingold’ has symbolic meaning of what happens in the world when you’re running after the Rhine gold, after the gold. It doesn’t end very well. It’s kind of a reminder of the values of life, and I think ‘The Ring,’ in a way, is kind of a prediction of Wagner of what would happen in the world.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Wagner always opens you a second breath, and then you go on, and you are absolutely into his musical world, and you can’t stop, and you can listen for four hours, five hours, six hours, and then you are like in his mystical hands of his music. He’s such a great poet of music.”
― Andris Nelsons
“To play opera, to play Wagner, it’s a great joy.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I feel too young in 2018 to take over the Berlin Philharmonic as the successor to Simon Rattle.”
― Andris Nelsons
“On stage, I’m always nervous, but there is so much adrenalin, too. It’s strange because I have to turn my back on the audience, and my audience is the orchestra. I communicate my energy to them, and they communicate it to the audience behind me!”
― Andris Nelsons
“When I was younger, I wanted very much to play football.”
― Andris Nelsons
“Anyone who loves football can also be involved in music; the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”
― Andris Nelsons
“I believe we have a physical body and a soul. It doesn’t matter what religion you are, whether or not you believe in God. I think people believe that there is a soul and a body.”
― Andris Nelsons
“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
“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
“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
“I think that, as a person, Beethoven talks to everyone in different ways.”
― Andris Nelsons
“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
“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
“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
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