1432 quotes by composers for you to enjoy

A priest once said to me, 'Think of a priest going to the altar as you walk out on the stage.' I would hate to think that anyone thought I was coming to preach. But art and music open up things that you can't put into words. It's about bringing joy when you go out there. Stephen Hough

Music Art Me You Hate Joy Words Walk Thought Preach Stage Think Once Out Would About Open Priest Put Altar Said Coming Go Up Going Anyone Things Bringing

Unlike sport, music is not about winning or keeping fit or promoting your town or school; it's about celebrating, to a level approaching ecstasy, the deepest human longings. Stephen Hough

Music School Approaching Unlike Promoting About Winning Town Ecstasy Sport Fit Celebrating Human Your Deepest Keeping Level

Discovering how to spend leisure time well, especially during a time of austerity, could be as important in the effort to reduce crime as having extra police on the streets, and increasing the population of concert halls may actually help decrease the population of prisons. Stephen Hough

Time Police Crime Important Extra Increasing Spend Having Could Well Concert Halls How Reduce Prisons Discovering Austerity Effort May Leisure Leisure Time Decrease Help Population Actually Streets

I was such a lazy teenager: I didn't read or play the piano beyond the bare minimum. Stephen Hough

Teenager Minimum Piano Lazy Beyond Read Bare Play

I love listening to things like those wonderful piano pieces of Stockhausen. It's just not my thing as a composer or performer, and thank goodness we're not obliged to be Modernist any more. Stephen Hough

Love Wonderful Listening Goodness Those Composer More Obliged Piano Performer Like Pieces Thank Thank Goodness Any Just Modernist Thing Things

I was only listening to rock music, burning joss sticks in my bedroom, wanting only to be a disc jockey, and watching six hours of television a night - the worst kind of teenage alienation. Stephen Hough

I just found the piano so fascinating and wonderful, and I begged my parents to buy me one. In the end, they bought me a toy piano and eventually an upright piano, and I started lessons. Stephen Hough

Buy Me Wonderful Parents Piano Bought Toy End Upright Just In The End Fascinating Lessons Found Eventually Started

When you're a kid, Beethoven is Beethoven, but as I've grown older, my astonishment at the sheer inventiveness of the man has increased, and I have an appreciation that I didn't have when I was in my 20s. Stephen Hough

You Man Appreciation Older Increased Astonishment Kid Sheer Beethoven Grown

The piano is an instrument that can easily sound overly thick, and I love to think that I can work with textures - particularly the inner textures inside the melody or the bass line. There is an analogy there with painting; I love paintings where you see colour underneath the colour and, underneath that, more texture and shape. Stephen Hough

Work Love You Painting Think Bass Analogy Melody Easily Inside See More Piano Shape Colour Particularly Instrument Underneath Sound Overly Line Texture Textures Where Paintings Thick Inner