What's On / Proms by Day

A winter holiday on the Ligurian coast in northern Italy provided the inspiration for one of Elgar's most popular concert overtures, a work with surprisingly dark undertones. Vaughan Williams's rarely heard Piano Concerto has a fierce, rhythmically vital quality that relates it to the Fourth Symphony (see Prom 10).

The soloist is Ashley Wass, one of the younger generation champions of the British piano repertoire. To end, marking the 100th anniversary of Rimsky-Korsakov's death, an evocation of tales from the Arabian Nights as told by the seductive princess Sheherazade. Vassily Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic have long been steeped in this richly coloured repertoire.

Paul Hillier returns with his other choir (he directs Theatre of Voices in Stockhausen's Stimmung in Prom 21) for Rachmaninov's heartfelt setting of the Orthodox All-Night Vigil.

Dating from shortly before the composer's departure from his native Russia, it is one of his finest achievements. Among the most accomplished choirs performing today, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir has garnered impressive reviews.

Writing of its recording of this work, classicstoday.com said, 'these are exciting and often moving performances as the choir works the phrasing and dynamics into thoughtful, sincere expressions of the texts, never losing the effect and inherent Romanticism of Rachmaninov's gorgeous lines and rich harmonies.'