Barry Douglas plays live at London’s Wigmore Hall

Mark Forrest showcases superb performances from the UK and beyond.

Our week begins with a live concert from Wigmore Hall in London, where pianist Barry Douglas conjures up the vivid imagery of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and plays seasonal music by Tchaikovsky, as well as three late pieces by Brahms.

Visits to two of the world’s leading classical music festivals form the bedrock of Classical Live this week: the Edinburgh International Festival and Lucerne Festival in the heart of Switzerland. From the former, we hear violinist Vilde Frang leading a group of musicians in a concert exploring the music of Bartok and its roots in local folk tunes. And from the banks of Lake Lucerne, Rachmaninov’s piano music is rendered in symphonic technicolour by Ottorino Respighi as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra performs his orchestrated Etudes-tableaux. There’s also a little-known piano concerto by a Finnish composer - Alexander Malofeev is the soloist in Selim Palgren’s Piano Concerto No. 2, ‘The River’.

1pm
Live from Wigmore Hall, London.

Johannes Brahms:
Capriccio in D minor Op. 116 No. 1
Intermezzo in E Op. 116 No. 4
Capriccio in D minor Op. 116 No. 7

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
The Seasons Op. 37a: October (Autumn song); December (Christmas)

Modest Mussorgsky:
Pictures at an Exhibition

Barry Douglas (piano)

2pm
George Frideric Handel
Concerto Grosso in G major, Op. 6 No. 1
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ton Koopman (conductor)

From the Edinburgh International Festival 2026:
Music by Béla Bártok interspersed with folk tunes
Vilde Frang (violin)
Olli Mustonen (piano)
Benjamin Eredics (trumpet)
Salamon Eredics (accordion, recorder)

From the Lucerne Festival 2026:
Sergei Rachmaninov orch. Respighi
5 Études-tableaux
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

From the International Sacred Music Festival, Fribourg 2026:
Barbara Strozzi
Che si puo fare
Les Kapsber’girls

From the Lucerne Festival 2026:
Selim Palmgren
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 33, ‘The River’
Alexander Malofeev (piano)
Lucerne Symphony Orchestra
Michael Sanderling (conductor)

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