Performances of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at BBC Proms

Youthful passion and illicit love collide in Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet and the lyrical outpourings of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Mark Wigglesworth conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with Nicola Benedetti as soloist.

Excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s first great ballet score include the colourful sequence of national dances and the heartbreaking final scene. Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini features Russian virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk.

An opportunity to hear excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in a more relaxed, family-friendly environment. Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini features Russian virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk.

Tchaikovsky’s much-loved ‘Pathétique’ Symphony, with its thrilling Scherzo, and Sibelius’s colourful Karelia suite, are joined by Mieczysław Weinberg’s Cello Concerto, which remained unperformed until after Stalin’s death. Sol Gabetta is the soloist.

Daniel Barenboim and his West–Eastern Divan Orchestra are joined by the legendary Martha Argerich for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, an expression of Romantic intensity balanced by the bracing vitality of Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Britten Sinfonia in a concert of musical homages, including Tchaikovsky’s suite of ‘Mozartiana’ and Stravinsky’s tribute to Tchaikovsky The Fairy’s Kiss. Also included is the premiere of Wigglesworth’s own Piano Concerto.

A concert of folk songs and tales from the BBC SSO. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.2 takes a different Ukrainian folk melody as theme for each movement, while a gruesome Czech legend provides the starting point for Janáček’s atmospheric The Fiddler’s Child.

Semyon Bychkov conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 – the most personal of the composer’s many confrontations with the horror of war. Love dominates the first half, in music from the operas Eugene Onegin and The Bartered Bride.