Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy

Where great things take effort, truly great things happen naturally. Shoji's Brahms was the highlight of the evening.  

Gautier Capuçon is the soloist in a fine reading of Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto, where sheer outward display gave way to more musical values.

In the exquisite singing line of the second movement, the appeal was not just in her beauty of tone but in the concentrated feeling Mullova brought to the shaping of each phrase.

Before launching his series Voices of Revolution with the Philharmonia Orchestra to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Ashkenazy recalls his experiences as a young Soviet pianist, his memories of Shostakovich and his witnessing history in the making.