Tomorrow...

...I'm off to Glasgow to give a pre-concert talk about Chopin for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Concert Hall. Curtain-raiser for a gorgeous programme bookended by Smetana and Dvorák, and in the middle David Kadouch is the soloist for Chopin's Piano Concerto No.2. Matthias Pintscher conducts. I'll be telling the story of the young Chopin, the significance in his life and output of his 'Second' Piano Concerto (inverted commas used for a good reason there) and the various elements that went into forming his style then, and which would stay with him for the rest of his life. The talk starts at 6.45pm and the concert is at 7.30pm, broadcast live on Radio 3. More details here. It is actually, embarrassingly, more years than I'd care to admit since I last went to Scotland at all, and I'm looking forward to revisiting this vibrant metropolis, if all too briefly.

Rafael Payare goes Russian

Tonight at the Royal Festival Hall, the conductor Rafael Payare joins me on stage for a pre-concert interview about his life and work, his training in El Sistema and this evening's programme of Russian music: Prokofiev's 'Classical' Symphony and the Violin Concerto No.1 and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Frank Peter Zimmermann is the violin soloist. Do come along if you can. Talk starts at 6pm and concert at 7.30pm. Tickets here.