I got to know Mravinsky best when we were working together on my Fifth Symphony. I must confess that at first I was rather put off by his methods. I felt that he was too preoccupied with small things, that he paid too much attention to detail, and it seemed to me that this would damage the overall plan and intention. Mravinsky subjected me to a veritable interrogation about every bar and every thought, demanding answer to his every doubt. But after we had been working together five days I realised that this method was perfectly correct. Seeing how seriously Mravinsky worked, I began to treat my own work more seriously, too. I realised that a conductor should not sing like a nightingale. Talent must be combined with long, laborious work. / In most cases the first performance of a work decided its fate. At the first hearing, the listener naturally pays more attention to the composer than to the conductor, whose primary task is therefore to present the work just as the composer himself would like it. Thanks to his extreme thoroughness, Yevgeny Mravinsky presented my Fifth Symphony precisely as I wanted. I am very grateful to him for this.