Berlioz: Harold in Italy, Op. 16
Leoncavallo: Requiem (arrangement for orchestra by Jozsef Acs)

Janos Acs, the world-famous conductor who was born in Hungary and has been working in foreign countries for over four decades, is known to be committed to the Italian tradition of opera performance. He has conducted more than 150 operas, including the complete works of Bellini and Puccini, and has been instrumental in the rediscovery of a host of rarely performed works, and he will now conduct Leoncavallo’s Requiem at the Budapest Spring Festival.
Best known for his operas, Ruggiero Leoncavallo dedicated his requiem to the memory of King Umberto I. The piece, which was written in 1900, was discovered by Janos Acs’s brother, pianist, organist and composer Jozsef Acs, who also prepared the orchestral arrangement that will now be first performed at the Festival.