Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Alexander Vedernikov

If you're dreaming of a White Christmas, what better way to be guaranteed of snow than taking a trip to Russia with the BBC Symphony Orchestra?

Higgins never forgets that the concerto form has a playful element

Miloš Karadaglić provides atmosphere and virtuosity in Joby Talbot’s newest work, while Alexander Vedernikov and the BBC Symphony Orchestra give Russian flourishes in Glinka and Tchaikovsky.

This was more stadium rock than stuffy opera house, lighting as ‘metaphor made real’ as the lovers were – literally – star-struck, blinded by love.

Steven Osborne consults the audience on the choice of encore following a fine performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no. 2, part of an all Russian programme which the CBSO played with zealous committment.

A belated touch of demonic fire was a welcome ingredient to last night's Prom with a compelling interpretation of Prokofiev's Third Symphony, based on material from his opera The Fiery Angel.

CBSO sparkled in the all Russian programme;  Tchaikovsky' Fifth and the Glazunov Violin Concerto brilliantly delivered, full of oustanding individual performances.

Conductor Alexander Vedernikov with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and a fine cast of soloists captivate the Concertgebouw’s audience with a too-little known opera by Tchaikovsky.

One hundred years after the première performance of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring, perhaps one of the most controversial and infamous stage premières of all time, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre’s Total Immersion collaboration provided an all-round look at every aspect of the music, choreography and the première itself through a variety of events on Sunday, culminating

What a wonderful season the BBC Symphony Orchestra is having. Adventurous, not fashion-conscious programming, and a crispness in the playing that is quite distinctive and utterly refreshing. And whoever had the idea to feature the works of Michael Tippett, in Britten’s centenary year, needs to be promoted.

Anyone looking for an evening of calm, reflective music would find they’d come to the wrong concert. It was rather like being granted a masterclass in how to represent the infinite nuances suggested by the performance direction “fortissimo”.