Artiste: Alexander Dmitriev

Alexander Dmitriev and the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra paraded passionate and colourful Tchaikovsky, while the masterful Peter Donohoe gave a potent and intricate Rachmaninov.

The St Petersburg SO and Alexander Dmitriev give a thoughtful and accomplished programme in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall

Sublime and satirical Russian music served to an appreciative but less than capacity audience at the Anvil. 

A neighbour at a recent visiting orchestra’s Edinburgh Festival concert asked me what I thought of the atonal frenzy in the pre-performance free-for-all; warm-up scales mingled with sneak peeks at tricky passages. My response was that a school orchestra would not be allowed to do this.