Synopsis

From London's Royal Albert Hall. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa makes a rare appearance at the Proms, performing two lyrical arias by Massenet. Joining her is eighty-year-old Russian pianist Tatyana Nikolaeva, who makes her debut at the Proms this season, playing Shostakovich’s vibrant Piano Concerto No. 2. The bicentenary of Rossini's birth is commemorated with the overture to his most famous opera, *The Barber of Seville*, and with *Soirees musicales*, a collection of some of his most enchanting mu