Guide to Classical Music, Opera and Dance in London

The Soviet authorities called it an “optimistic tragedy”. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, tense, packed with secret messages and featuring a hair-raising musical portrait of Stalin himself; what’s certain is that Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the mightiest of 20th-century symphonies – one of those pieces that you simply have to hear live. Raiskin and this outstanding Czech orchestra share a gift from home: Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen.

One of today’s brightest piano stars shines in music that overflows with character and colour, culminating in the fairground thrills of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Behzod Abduraimov offers a recital that shows off the piano’s magnificent potential for colour, range and virtuosity. He begins with Brahms’ final set of piano pieces, Op.119, introspective, humorous and rugged by turns, followed by Liszt’s Après un lecture de Dante and Debussy’s Suite bergamasque.