Performer: Dima Slobodeniouk

Thanks to an extraordinary ensemble effort by everyone involved, old friends arrived wearing expertly tailored new clothes inviting a closer look.

Excellent playing from The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and an interesting programme of less familiar works by familiar composers, made for an exhilarating musical experience.

Dima Slobodeniouk’s Cleveland Orchestra program included music by Rachmaninov and Nielsen, along with a Liszt piano concerto with Marc-André Hamelin.

Baiba Skride gripped the audience in Sibelius's Violin Concerto in the opening concert of this year's Sibelius Festival in Lahti, along with some rarities by the composer.

There is nothing quite like an all-Beethoven programme for filling a large concert hall. Last night’s offering from the RSNO in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall was ample proof of this, with hardly a spare seat anywhere in the house.

As a big Shostakovich fan, I was very excited when I found out that his 13th Symphony ('Babi Yar') would be performed this season. It's a work that does not appear that often in concert halls, probably because it not only requires a large orchestra, but also a more-than-adept bass soloist and male chorus.