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A good conductor ought to be a good chauffeur; the qualities that make the one also make the other. They are concentration, an incessant control of attention, and presence of mind; the conductor only has to add a little sense of music.

— Sergei Rachmaninoff

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More quotes by Sergei Rachmaninoff

I repeat what I said to you back in Russia: you are, in my opinion, the greatest composer of our time.

The most mechanical playing imaginable can proceed from those who make themselves slaves to this little musical clock, which was never intended to stand like a ruler over every minute of the student's practice time.

The virtuosos look to the students of the world to do their share in the education of the great musical public. Do not waste your time with music that is trite or ignoble. Life is too short to spend it wandering in the barren Saharas of musical trash.

I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing and I cannot acquire the new. I have made an intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me.

My dear hands. Farewell, my poor hands.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sergei Rachmaninoff (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.