Luigi Cherubini: Médée – overture
Niccolò Paganini: Violin Concerto No 1 in D major, op. 6.
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Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major, “Italian”, op. 90

Sergei Krylov violin

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Róbert Farkas

On this evening, almost everything and everyone is Italian. Except now and then you will find a “stowaway”. Though it is true that posterity has Cherubini down as a French composer, he was actually born in Tuscany. Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony may have been written by a German composer, but the work almost bursts with the joy of Italy. And Sergei Krylov? Biographically speaking, he is Russian-born, but he is usually introduced as a “Russian and Italian” musician, and even plays a Stradivari. The concerto piece to be played in the middle of the show from Paganini, on the other hand, has no disguises: it is self-evidently and overwhelmingly Italian…

The fact that almost everything and everyone can be linked to Italy is owing to the conductor. Róbert Farkas was born in Ózd. After studying in Budapest, he completed his education in Berlin and enjoyed his first significant achievements in his career on German soil. He is currently the artistic director of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra. Born in Moscow, Sergei Krylov won a whole host of competitions at the start of his dizzying career before going on to play with most of the world’s most significant conductors. He first performed at Müpa Budapest as a soloist, playing Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Zoltán Kocsis as conductor. After the performance, Kocsis told him that “Your Bartók speaks in Hungarian.”