When I do an operation, it's half a dozen people. When it goes beautifully, it's like a symphony, with everybody playing their part.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I first wrote for orchestra, I didn't realize, when you have 20 people playing a violin line, that is very different than one person playing that line.
It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.
Sometimes there is a 36-piece orchestra going off in my stomach.
A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.
It's nice not to have the majority of the attention on me like there is when playing a concerto with an orchestra.
I am the conductor for life of the Staatskapelle in Berlin, which fills me with tremendous joy because I feel absolutely at one with them. When we play, I have a feeling that together we manage to create one collective lung for the whole orchestra so that everybody in the stage breathes the music in the same way.
I currently spend a lot of time thinking about orchestration and every detail of a piece.
I found I could perform in front of 200 people, but I would still feel nervous having a one-on-one conversation.
I like to think that my works flow like music. That may be one reason I work in large groups versus one picture of one thing; it's the flow of the whole series that counts.
Orchestra had a little brass ensemble on two tracks as well, but the rest was me. I knew I couldn't continue in this direction, even if people liked it, because I can only duplicate myself.