He learned the piano but, when he was 14, he heard Erich Kleiber conduct Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and he immediately wanted to be a conductor. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Leo Weiner and Ernst von Dohnanyi. By 1935 he was becoming known as a conductor. He conducted "The Marriage of Figaro" at the Budapest Opera in 1938. It was the first time he had conducted there, and it was also to be the last time. That very day, Hitler annexed Austria. Life became dangerous for Jews in Hungary. In 1939, he moved to Switzerland, where he continued a career as a pianist and won the Geneva International Piano Competition, but he did not have many chances to conduct there. His father became ill and died, so he never saw him again.