Composer Quotes

“The idea of a composer in an ivory tower is a very romantic and, I think, a very silly notion.”

“What the composer wanted is the alpha and omega for me. But the composer is not there to tell me what he wanted.”

“Without Schubert, I would not have been the same person.”

“My duty is to be the composer's advocate.”

“I regard it as the duty of a composer to be a man of his time.”

“Verdi is the composer of the people. He speaks to the heart.”

“My job is to be the advocate for the composer.”

“Mozart is pure, like a crystal.”

“Of all the composers that have ever lived, Schubert is the most poetical.”

“The score is the Bible. We must be servants of the score.”

“Schoenberg is the great watershed of 20th-century music.”

“Mahler is a mountain, and you must climb it. The view from the top is worth the effort.”

“Wagner is a composer who is not for the faint-hearted.”

“I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.”

“Mozart is sweet sunshine.”