‘Better to leave five years too early than five minutes too late’

Alan Gilbert, the former New York Philharmonic music director, now starting his tenure with the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, discusses conductors’ optimal longevity with orchestras, balancing new music with old, gender equity in programming and much else in an interview with the online classical-music magazine Van:

http://van-us.atavist.com/cast-together