my guest is the world renowned soviet born conductor semyon bychkov. is art the loser when politics takes centre stage? semyon bychkovjoins me now. welcome to hardtalk. thank you. you are like all of the great musical maestros, you re peripatetic, your career takes you all around the world, you are constantly travelling. is there one place you can point to and say that has done the most to define you as a person and an artist? no, i don t think so. maybe because my destiny made it so that i was born in russia. i lived there 22 years before emigrating to america. leningrad was the city, when it was called leningrad. leningrad today, st petersburg. so the dna, the roots are there, have always been, always will be. but then what happens is that i come to america, i live five years, my first five years, in new york, and then i conduct grand rapid symphony in michigan, buffalo philharmonic, so altogether i think, what, 13, 14 years of life in america, becoming us citizen, having
into monday, and there is some rain but again it s then the far north west of scotland, that is where all the rain has been over the past month or so and ahead of that dry, nothing more than fair weather cloud, sunshine to come, light ones as well in the sunshine, it continues to heat up so we are looking at temperatures rising close to 30 degrees across the south east of england on monday afternoon. hello, this is bbc news. i m shaun ley, and these are the headlines. air raid sirens sound injerusalem for the first time since the start of last year s full scale conflict between israel and palestinian militants in the gaza strip. the two conservative party leadership contenders vying the next prime minister outline how they plan to help people cope with the rising cost of living, but former prime minister gordon brown says much more action is needed. nearly 170,000 tonnes of grain and sunflower oil leave on a second convoy of ships out of ukaine after russia s blockade caused
there are warnings of possible dispersal of radioactive particles. in the uk, the two candidates trying to become the next prime minister set out their plans to deal with forecasts of an economic downturn. chinese fighter jets fly close to taiwan s coastline, as bejing halts co operation with the us on key issues including climate change. and europe s record drought leaves more than 100 french towns without fresh drinking water. now on bbc news, take me to the opera zeinab badawi finds out how the opera world is making itself fit for the future and what it takes to become a top opera star. i have been an opera fan for decades and they want to share my passion with you. so ir minor mission to find out how opera is making itself it for future find out how opera is making itself it forfuture i am on a mission. i have come to munich to meet one of my all time opera the german tenor jonas kaufmann, who is widely viewed as the world s leading opera singer. operatic singing.
hello this is bbc news. i m chris rogers the headlines. the family of 12 year old archie battersbee confirm he has died after his life support was withdrawn. conservative leadership contenders set out their approaches to dealing with the economic downturn forecast by the bank of england. the palestinian health ministry says 15 palestinians have been killed in the gaza strip where the israeli military is targeting members of the palestinian group islamichhad. a bus carrying roman catholic pilgrims has crashed in northern croatia killing 12 polish people and injuring more than 30 others. the effects from a cyber attack on the nhs 111 system could take until next week to resolve after phone lines and electronic gp referrals were disrupted. and world championjake whightman has to settle for a bronze medal after coming third in the 1500 metres at the commonwealth games. we ll have all the latest from birmingham. now on bbc news take me to the opera. zeinab badawi finds out h