Many of his productions are now available on DVD, including a few that are his personal favorites: his Ruslan and Lyudmila from the Mariinsky Opera (starring the glamorous Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko), the Canadian Opera Company's Anna Bolena with Joan Sutherland, the same company's Norma with Sutherland and Tatiana Troyanos, and the SFO production of L'Africaine with Placido Domingo and Shirley Verrett.

Before that the Phil and their dynamic young conductor will be tackling Glinka's Overture Ruslan And Lyudmila, the Adagio from Khachaturian's Spartacus (popularly familiar as the them from TV's The Onedin Line ) and the Rimsky-Korsakov Suite - The Golden Cockerel.

He makes his debut with the Phil this week - a lot of whom he says are former contemporaries from the Northern College of Music or just good friends he's got to know within the business - with Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila overture followed by the Rachmaninov concerto, and wrapping up with Tchaikovsky's emotionally stirring Symphony No 6 in B minor, better known as the Pathetique.