In between performances of Nabucco at the Teatro di San Carlo in January and rehearsals for Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana at the Teatro del Maggio at the beginning of February, I’m conducting two symphonic concerts with programmes that are extremely appealing for the audience and thrilling for me and the orchestras involved. And in the midst of everything, on 6th February, my symphonic album “Italian Perspectives” is due to be released. Symphonic music takes up a considerable portion of my schedule and has a special place in my heart, but also provides the impulse for me to express my musical maturity at this time, as I prepare to celebrate twenty-five years on the podium.

The two concerts are scheduled respectively at the Teatro di San Carlo on 24th January and at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, on 14th February, the first with the San Carlo Orchestra, and pianist Federico Colli, and the second with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra of which I am honorary conductor, and whom I’ll be joining again over the next few months to tackle together other immense symphonic works. In Naples, the programme includes Les Préludes by Liszt, the Schumann Concerto for piano and orchestra in A minor and the Dvořák Symphony no. 9 in E minor “From the New World”. In Budapest, we’re performing the Brahms Serenade no. 1 in D major and the Bartók Concerto for orchestra. Fine threads intertwine to form a dense symphonic fabric in Schumann’s masterpiece and in Dvořák’s most famous symphony, but also textures of more ethereal beauty as in the youthful serenade by Brahms, or powerful swathes of sound as in the Préludes by the dearly loved Liszt.