Mahler vs Strauss: should a symphony hold the whole world or dazzle it?

A symphony must be like the world, Richard—it must contain everything: heaven, death, the cry of a child, the whole trembling universe.

And I, Gustav, can depict a teaspoon and a fork on a dinner table—music should shimmer, seduce, and sell tickets by Friday.

You conduct as if you're waiting for the check to clear; I conduct as if the last trumpet is about to sound.

Perhaps—but I sleep well, dear friend, while you interrogate God through eighty minutes of anguish and a cowbell.