Former Bolshoi chief conductor Alexander Vedernikov returns to the Orchestra for an evening of music from Russia that will embrace you like a warm coat on a winter’s day, but not before Gregory Sviridov’s vivid Suite from The Blizzard – a film based on Pushkin’s dramatic comedy – has plunged you deep into the swirling snowstorms, driving winds and political chill of a Soviet winter circa 1964.

Pianist Andrei Korobeinikov joins us for Rachmaninov’s tantalizing dance with love and death, the Paganini Rhapsody, before the icicle-clear melodies and bracing dances of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic celebration of winter.