Libor Pesek: I only took up the baton to get out of the army

The indelible Czech conductor, 86, has been speaking at his richly deserved award of the  Bohuslav Martinů Memorial Medal.

Among other things:

To some extent, I remained an amateur and because of that I had time to be interested in other things as well. I always thought a little disgraceful when it was said about a musician: music is everything to him! I went to AMU just to avoid having to go to military service, only in the second year, when I saw Antonio Pedrotti at a concert in Prague, I became passionate. I went crazy about serious music because of him.

On the advantage of being a conductor? If you hear something perfect, which is rarely, you can appreciate it like no one else.

More here.