Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 by Finnis, Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Fra (2017/2017), Dirigent Ilan Volkov, City Halls, Glasgow, United Kingdom

In music, there’s more than one way to tell a story. Quiet piano chords launch Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, the perfect symbol for a composer summoning the creative confidence to write the most popular piano concerto of the 20th century. Rimsky-Korsakov is more forthright: instruments actually become characters in his hugely popular Arabian Nights fantasy – though if anyone can uncover the secrets behind the glitter, it’s Ilan Volkov. And Edmund Finnis? We can’t say yet: we simply know that it’s worth hearing any story that this “compelling” (The Daily Telegraph) young British composer has to tell.