The guest director of the ACO pays tribute to his beloved hometown in an all-Viennese program.

Why was it so important to present a program in Australia devoted to works from your birthplace?
The core of my repertoire centres on Vienna and the ancient Austro-Hungarian Empire which stretched from Prague over Vienna to Budapest. So I thought it would be interesting to bring to Australia works from there which are a little apart from the all-time superstars such as Mozart, Brahms and Mahler.

Do you think there is distinctive Viennese style in your playing?
Well, I hope so! Vienna has one of the richest histories of music, and when I play music by Schubert, Korngold or Breinschmid I am constantly reminded of that tradition, even without thinking about it.

There’s a lot more to Austrian music than just the waltz. How broad is the program of works you have selected?
It reaches from Schubert’s Rondo for Violin and Strings, which is very elegant and almost danceable music, to the post-Romanticism of Korngold, and on to modern Viennese expression à la Gruber, and from there back to the very roots of the waltz: Joseph Lanner. And we have a...