NEVILLE MARRINER

So in one leap we had gone from being a friendly society to something almost professional.

The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

I would like new people with new ideas to come into it and change it.

So I think we got together as the Academy to give ourselves that sort of responsibility and to play well.

If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians.

This American Jewish music is a new experience for us at least consciously.

If the (British) Arts Council give you money, they also tell you how to spend it.

Taste is changing, style is changing, and players' abilities are changing.

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate.

If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians.

Initially we performed in halls with capacities of 1,000.

As you know, there are certain languages that lend themselves very easily to vocal use.

One thing we were looking for from the start was players who really fit together, who sounded in tune.

I would like new people with new ideas to come into it and change it.

The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less.

Taste is changing, style is changing, and players' abilities are changing.

One of the great virtues, apart from the pleasure of performing these works, is that it's opened up an entirely new, expansive repertoire of American Jewish music.

So in one leap we had gone from being a friendly society to something almost professional.

Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.

But the most important test is to take them on tour and see if you can bear to spend time with them.

Most Beethoven symphonies require 80 or more instruments, and the late romantics even more.

I think we were all frustrated with our daily routine.

If the (British) Arts Council give you money, they also tell you how to spend it.

Before, we may have taken part in it without even thinking it was American Jewish, but in this case, I think, you have now perhaps pointed us in a direction of a new interest in this repertoire.

We don't want other people poking into our artistic pie.

Music is a continuum and the modern and avant-garde composers of today will be part of the standard repertoire 30 years from now.

So I think we got together as the Academy to give ourselves that sort of responsibility and to play well.

So I've never found there was any particular separation between the two cultures at all, musically speaking.

I think the quality of something like the Beveridge, for instance, will have a life of its own.

This American Jewish music is a new experience for us at least consciously.

I just wish, maybe, that I'd started conducting earlier. I was about 40 when I started. Apart from that I don't really have any regrets. Is that bad?