I still reject lead roles, as I don't accept any role if I don't find it challenging enough. I am very careful while making selections.
A well arranged scrapbook, filled with choice selections, is a most excellent companion for anyone who has the least literary taste.
Artists, whatever their medium, make selections from the abounding materials of life, and organize these selections into works that are under the control of the artist. . . . In relation to the inclusiveness and literally endless intricacy of life, art is arbitrary, symbolic and abstracted. That is its value and the source of its own kind of order and coherence.
The way it works: The orchestra plays a few selections of its own and I terminate the first part of the programme on piano, usually with a movement from a Mozart concerto.
Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz: The mind and soul of man.
The singing of hymns and the rendition of selections from the great sacred oratorios by ward choirs all enhance the spirit of worship.
