Denis Kozhukhin (piano), UO/Rumon Gamba

Ulster Hall, Belfast Fri 7.45pm Adm free 00-44-3709011227 UO/Alan Buribayev Ulster Hall, Belfast, Wed 1.05pm Adm free 0044-3709011227

The BBC’s free series of Russian concerts with the Ulster Orchestra this week features two of Tchaikovsky’s less frequently heard symphonies. Rumon Gamba conducts No 3, the Polish, on Friday, and the RTÉ NSO’s principal conductor Alan Buribayev (making his Belfast début) conducts No 2 (Winter Dreams) at lunchtime on Wednesday.

The big guns, however, are in Friday’s concerto, when Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin (winner of the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and finalist in the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006) plays Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, a piece which boasts one of the most spectacular and technically gruelling of cadenzas.

Friday’s programme also includes Liadov’s Eight Russian Folksongs, and Wednesday’s begins with the Nocturne from Borodin’s Second String Quartet, arranged for orchestra by Malcolm Sargent.