Aziz Shokhakimov in Strasbourg

The young Uzbek conductor Aziz Shokhakimov has been making waves in Strasbourg since his appointment as Musical and Artistic Director of the city's orchestra in 2021, with highlights including a beautifully shaped and paced account of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Opera National du Rhin last spring, concert-performances of Bizet's Carmen starring Elena Maximova and Michael Spyres (when Shokhakimov stepped in at short notice to replace the late John Nelson), and albums devoted to Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics.

Now well into his fourth season at Strasbourg, Aziz sat down with Presto immediately before conducting Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (plus Debussy's Printemps and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 with Jan Lisiecki) to talk about how he and his young family settled into their new home after relocating from Germany, why he loves the city's unique blend of French and German culture, his first experience of conducting The Rite in his native Tashkent at the tender age of fourteen, and his new recording of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (which was released on Warner in April).