Tchaikovsky & Sibelius

Pavel Kolesnikov, a pianist 'in full command of a magnificent range of powers' (The Arts Desk), has risen from BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist to major soloist.

He joins the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Rory Macdonald in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1, a rollercoaster of emotions from its first implacable chords to its fiery finale.

Sibelius' King Christian II Suite was written in 1904 for a play telling of the fall of a 16th-century ruler.

Sibelius gives some movements an ancient flavour, with pairs of woodwinds playing rustic tunes.

Other movements paint Romantic pictures of dusk and night-time with lush string melodies.

The rousing final movement would have filled a contemporary Finnish audience with patriotic fervour, in no doubt as to the play's nationalist, anti-Russian subtext.

Sibelius' short Dance Intermezzo, with its tambourines and castanets, transports us to the sunny Mediterranean.