Lorin Maazel

In fact the hardest part is trying to forget music when I'm not conducting it.

— Lorin Maazel

I don't want to be conducting Mahler with my head stuffed full of 10 million notes from other composers.

— Lorin Maazel

I come to a performance of music that I know very well as if I were performing it for the first time. Every day is a new day, a new experience. This is the way I approach a masterpiece. A masterpiece can never age - it's only the people who perform it or listen to it who become insensitive to it. If you come with a fresh feeling toward a masterpiece, it will always feel fresh and give you the benefit of its genius.

— Lorin Maazel