The Oslo Philharmonic under its conductor Mariss Jansons is now one of Europe's top orchestras. Their concert tonight from London's Royal Albert Hall begins with a bizarre work by Russian composer Alfred Schnittke. He calls it (Not) a Midsummer Night's Dream and in it a tune which could be by Schubert is taken on a nightmarish journey. Schnittke says of this tune: "I didn't borrow it, I faked it!"

The soloist in the central work, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, is the brilliant young Japanese virtuoso Midori. She began her extraordinary career as an 11-year-old prodigy. Now 21, she says: "The Proms, for me, represent two Englands I tremendously enjoy - a combination of illustrious musical splendour and a romanticism as English as the worlds of Heathcliff and Jane Eyre. So it is a particular thrill to make my Proms debut tonight with a favourite concerto which I first recorded when I was 15."
After the interval, Jansons conducts Richard Strauss's huge Alpine Symphony.
Introduced by James Naughtie.

(Simultaneous Broadcast with Radio 3)