Veli Pekka Toropainen Quotes

I feel that this is my artistic home, and I'm very happy to be a California artist together with many others who are not from here originally but who decided to make this the center of their activities. There's something about that that I find very inspiring and satisfying. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

If somebody had told me when I was starting composition in Helsinki in the '70s that I would end up in L.A. and to describe that journey, those 17 years with the philharmonic and building the hall and this and that, I would have said, "This is a fairy tale of the first order." ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

He'd taken pride in making Ketterdam his. He'd laid the traps, set the fires, put his boot to the necks of all those who'd challenged him, and reaped the rewards of his boldness. Most of the opposition had fallen, easy pickings, the occasional challenge almost welcome for the excitement it brought. He'd broken the Barrel to his whim, written the rules of the game to his liking, rewritten them at will.
The problem was that the creatures who had managed to survive the city he'd made were a new kind of misery entirely - Brekker, his Wraith queen, his rotten little court of thugs. A fearless breed, hard-eyed and feral, hungrier for vengeance than gold.
Do you like life, Rollins?
Yes, he did, very much indeed, and he intended to go on living for a good long time.
Pekka would count his money. He would raise his son. He'd find himself a good woman or two or ten. And maybe, in the quiet hours, he'd raise a glass to men like him, to his fellow architects of misfortune who had helped raise Brekker and his crew. He'd drink to the whole sorry lot of them, but mostly to the poor fools who didn't know what trouble was coming. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I was starting a group of musicians and we had a group of young composers in Finland back in the '70s, and the real conductors, the professional conductors at the time were not interested in our stuff. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

The sound was my greatest concern. There were certain difficulties getting used to the way every musician can hear his or herself, the way each of them relates to the musician in the next seat. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I'm still disturbed if a chord isn't together, but your priorities change as you get older. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

When we're at the end of The Rite of Spring or of a Bruckner symphony, I want people to feel the music physically. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

There is such a suspicion in today's world of people who do more than one thing, who aren't specialized. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

This conducting thing happened. In 1983 I was sucked into this international career, which was a very scary experience. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I'm trying to conduct only five months a year, and the rest will be composing time. I'm trying to spend as much as I can out of those months here in L.A., because for creative work, this is a fantastic place. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I started conducting lessons and I realized that this is actually something I like doing. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. 'Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost. ~ Leigh Bardugo

You tell me where he is, Brekker," Rollins roared in his face. "You tell me where my son is!"

"Say my brother's name. Speak it like they do in the magic shows on East Stave - like an incantation. You want your boy? What right does your son have to his precious, coddled life? How is he different from me or my brother? ~ Leigh Bardugo

There's so much energy exchange [in conduction], so you get back a lot, of course, but you also have to give a lot. It's kind of high-energy thing. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

The philharmonic became such a journey and adventure in my life, and a deeply satisfying thing. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Conducting was just something that happened by fluke. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I think we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet. But we are trying. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

There is something very special about this part of the world [U.S], which is the openness and the curiosity and the lack of prejudice and the lack of generally accepted norms as to what art should be and how an artist's career should go and all that. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Of course performing talent, that's clear. Maybe this is not so well-known among young people who are interested in music, who are talented in music, but they're trying to figure out how to go about it. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Rollins held up his watch chain. A turnip was hanging from the fob where his diamond-studded time piece should have been. "That little bastard
" Then a thought came to him. He reached for his wallet. It was gone. So was his tie pin, the Kaelish coin pendant he wore for luck, and the gold buckles on his shoes. Rollins wondered if he should check the fillings in his teeth.
"He picked your pockets?" Doughty asked incredulously.
No one got one over on Pekka Rollins. No one dared. But Brekker had, and Rollins wondered if that was just the beginning. ~ Leigh Bardugo

It is suicidal for other runners to copy my hill sessions without adequate background. ~ Pekka Vasala

We're not talking about an elite art form from the price point of view. We have a building in L.A. that is incredibly open, exciting, inviting, and all that, and there's no reason for this music not to be part of everybody's everyday life. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I don't believe in an annual dose of film music for the sake of it being film music. If we program film music, it will be because there is a real artistic reason for doing so. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I'm composing more than before. I'm cutting down on conducting. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I realized that the European dogma is not necessarily the only way to look at things. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

One might say that there is an "ethics barrier " a speed above which ethics can no longer exit. After that point the only remaining goal is to survive the immediate moment. ~ Pekka Himanen

I love a visceral sound, the kind that hits you in the belly. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I don't expect you to fight beside me, Rollins."
"Then what do you want? It's yours. Within reason."
"I need to get a message to the Ravkan capital. Fast."
Rollins shrugged. "Easy enough."
"And I need money."
"Shocking. How much?"
"Two hundred thousand kruge."
Rollins nearly choked on his laughter. "Anything else, Brekker? The Lantsov Emerald? A dragon who craps rainbows? ~ Leigh Bardugo

Brick by brick.

Brick by brick, I will destroy you.

"It was the promise that let him sleep at night, that drove him every day, that kept Jordie's ghost at bay. Because a quick death was too good for Pekka Rollins. ~ Leigh Bardugo

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

The classical music industry, has been an industry of covers. So we do covers, and if I compare this with the rock and pop side, what is the most exciting event? ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

The sort of commercial parameters of classical music changed after the [World War II] , and the whole industry became more backward-looking. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

I always felt that one day I would have to make the change in my own life, bite the bullet and see what it is to be a composer who conducts rather than the other way around. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen

There was this kind of mildly annoying mythology about conductor Like biker should riding a Harley-Davidson on an LP cover, and wearing a sort of a leather suit. ~ Esa-Pekka Salonen