Top 24 Quotes & Sayings by Emanuel Ax

Applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.

Everyone is different. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary.

How wonderful it is to play with someone you feel very close to.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

I have been trying to find out exactly when listeners and performers decided that applause between movements would not be allowed, but nobody seems to have been willing to admit that they were the culprit.

If there were no rules about when to applaud, we in the audience would have the right response almost always.

If the audience walks out of a concert thinking, What a wonderful experience, then we have done our job.

Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have such a hard time just getting things right; arguing is for string players.

All of us love applause, and so we should - it means that the listener likes us!

A lot of it just has to do with luck, serendipity.

I have been coming to Los Angeles since 1975 to perform.

The sheer force of the music calls for a wild audience reaction.

I usually only play with very close friends.

It is wonderful to see how happy all my friends in the LA Philharmonic are in their new home.

We should welcome applause whenever it comes.

Even if you don't like a concert of mine, please, please applaud at the end anyway.

The stage is close to being in the middle of the hall, so that the performers are surrounded by the listeners. I feel that we are all experiencing the music together.

We seem to have set up some very arcane rules as to when it is actually OK to applaud.

I have always thought that my ear is also very influenced by my eyes.

Sometimes I wish that applause would come just a bit later, when it is so beautifully hushed that I feel like holding my breath in the silence of the end.

Everybody makes his path differently.

When one plays a Steinway, there is a warmth and nobility in the sound that is unequalled by any other instrument.

Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have a hard enough time just getting things right. Arguing is for string players.

I think competition in any kind of activity like music, art, literature - anything that's not done with a timer - is actually impossible. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're entering the lottery. You're hoping that you play well (and that) you play your best on the day that you're heard, and you're hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.