Edinburgh Festival '98: Classical

Classical Duncan Hadfield

SIR DONALD TOVEY is nowadays perhaps best remembered as an eminent musicologist. Yet the Reid Professor of Music in Edinburgh from 1914 until his death in 1940 was also a virtuoso pianist and a composer in his own right. A Tribute Concert takes place on his home soil today with Martyn Brabbins conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The programme includes piano duets and the Piano and Cello concertos, with Richard Goode (right). Usher Hall, Edinburgh (0131-473 2000) 4.30pm

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, joins pianist Howard Shelley for a curious hybrid: featured Proms composer Karol Szymanowski's Fourth and last Symphony, the Sinfonia Concertante: part concerto, part symphony. Shostakovich's 13th Symphony, Babi Yar, completes the concert, continuing this summer's ongoing exploration of `political" music, with its texts by Yevtuschenko openly attacking the Stalinist regime. Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (0171-589 8212) 7.30pm