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I love playing in Germany. I love playing anywhere where people are going to enjoy the music. Germany is especially nice to play.

I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.

The game is if the orchestra can hear each other, they play better. If they play better and there's a tangible feeling between the orchestra and the audience, if they feel each other, the audience responds and the orchestra feels it.

In Hamburg, there are three major orchestras, an opera house, and one of the great concert-hall acoustics in Europe at the Laeiszhalle, in a town a fifth the size of London. And that's not unusual. In Germany, there are dozens of towns with two or three orchestras. The connection with music goes very, very deep.

There are three orchestras in Munich, all world-quality, in a city of one million. Yet every hall is full.

For musicians, Musikfest is the most cool event.

Despite the digital age, there is a very large number of venues and spaces that are looking for plays, and many of them are looking for new plays.

In 2012 the best venue I played was Union Chapel in London. It's a beautiful room, the sound is exceptional, and they treated us very well.

It is very gratifying to see the music from 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy find a new life on the concert stage as it is performed by different orchestras and choruses throughout the world.

The Detroit String Quartet played Brahms last night. Brahms lost.