In 1909, on his isolated estate in south-west Russia, Sergei Rachmaninov finished work on a new piano concerto he had conceived and written entirely in secret. The idea was to showcase not just his talents as a composer, but also as a pianist: this concerto would be more challenging to play than any other in the repertoire.

These days, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 remains the greatest test of a pianist’s skills still regularly performed. For pianists, it’s an Everest. For audiences, it’s a thrilling emotional rollercoaster ride in which a lone virtuoso thunders against a surging orchestra in a heart-stopping musical narrative.

Pavel Kolesnikov is the soloist in this performance of Rachmaninov’s climactic concerto marshalled by Principal Guest Conductor Sir Mark Elder, who also leads the orchestra in excerpts from Ørjan Matre’s reimagination of Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces and Antonín Dvořák’s celebration of the sounds and experiences of the Czech countryside – his uplifting and folk-song-infused Symphony No 8.