Classical Preview: Lill picks Prokofiev's Third for Opera North date

It must have been an unnerving experience to find my shaking hand turning the pages for the first work in his recital, but as a young student, I had only arrived at the venue to hear a promising pianist.

His name was John Lill, and in the years that followed, he become the winner of the 1970 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition that established him as the leading British pianist of his generation.

Now with a concert career stretching back almost 50 years and appearances with most of the world's great orchestras, he marked his 65th birthday last year with a world tour.

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Over this coming week, he joins the Orchestra of Opera North in the brilliant virtuosity of one of the most popular 20th-century works, the Third Piano Concerto by Prokofiev. The orchestra is conducted by Dmitri Jurowski, the youngest member of one of Russia's most famous musical dynasties. Born in Moscow, in 1979, the grandson of a composer and the son of the conductor, Michail Jurowski, he was admitted to the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire at the age of six.

Now his flourishing conducting career has come from out of the shadow of elder brother Wladimir, who is riding high on the wish lists of the world's great orchestras.

Known mainly in the world of opera, with highly acclaimed debuts in Dresden and Wexford, he has chosen an all-Russian programme with the overture to Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, May Night, and Stravinsky's suite from the ballet, The Firebird.

Huddersfield Town Hall, December 2, 7.30pm, 01484 223200; Leeds Town Hall, December 4, 7.30pm. 0113 224 3801.