Performer: Natasha Paremski

The Seattle Symphony celebrates 150 years of Rachmaninov with stunning performances of two of his piano concertos.

Contrasting Hungarian musical portraits from Dohnányi and Bartók anchored JoAnn Falletta’s latest Virginia Symphony concerts, coupled with a Tchaikovsky piano concerto that was long on bravura but short on poetry.

Beginning with a work sprung from the minds of not one, but two great Russian composers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton opened their latest distinctly Slavic programme at the Southbank Centre with Rimsky-Korsakov’s revised version of Mussorgky’s Night on Bare Mountain.

Although the Usher Hall was slightly less packed than for the inaugural concert of the season, there was a healthy crowd. If two concerts is sufficient to gauge an emerging format then Music Director Peter Oundjian’s preferred style seems to be to save welcoming remarks until after the opening piece, at which point he talks us through the evening as a whole.