From Silence Quotes

“Classical music has so much to offer us: from effervescent humour to despairing lament, it spreads out before us the whole emotional palette of which human beings are capable.”
― Franz Welser-Möst, From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World

“...musical interpreters should put themselves at the service of the composer, instead of perverting their music as an opportunity for image cultivation. I am not ready to give up my belief that human beings have an inborn longing for real profundity. I am firmly convinced that the deep emotion that music can evoke in us is not to be found on its surface. That which is truly great develops out of intimacy and humility towards the work of art.”
― Franz Welser-Möst, From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World

“Ultimately music is the art of the eternally different in what is always the same.”
― Franz Welser-Möst, From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World

“Fun means enjoyment, entertainment, amusement; pleasure on the other hand means high spirits, a feeling of happiness, inner cheerfulness. Fun is what one has; pleasure is what one feels. Fun is the fulfillment of a hedonistic feeling, pleasure is a feeling created from deep within. Fun is associated with the outer, strident, active; pleasure with the inner, calm and contemplative. Fun is superficial and (self-)stupefying; pleasure is most enjoyable when it can be shared.”
― Franz Welser-Möst, From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World

“I want to encourage others to believe in their own talents, to stand up for their convictions, which they have developed by means of searching and digging, even if this does not correspond to the spirit of the times -- as well as not to jump onto any bandwagon which stands ready for us in our present-day culture of permanent excitement. Many experiences which are painful in the moment later turn out to represent important and appropriate changes of course.”
― Franz Welser-Möst, From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World