I’m grateful to my beloved ABAO Bilbao Opera (and, as always, to my beloved Spain) for this award: best conductor in the first edition of Tutto Verdi International Awards, organised by the Teatro di Bilbao to give international standing to this unique project created in 2006 to highlight the life and work of Giuseppe Verdi.

There are two concerts scheduled for this spring with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra: on 17 April in the prestigious Grand Hall at the Liszt Academy and on 25 April at the Müpa Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

It’s always a joy to be back at La Fenice and this time it’s an even greater pleasure, since I’ll be conducting Verdi’s first “Venetian” opera in a new production with an excellent cast.

Just a few months into my role as chief conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, I am back conducting them in two concerts with rather unusual programmes. On 8 February,