Classical: Music in the Round festival

'For some, a celebration of Russian music will evoke expectations of intense passions and electrifying music that will pin you to the back of your seats,' say Angus Smith, Artistic Director of Sheffield's Music in the Round, ahead of the May Festival opening at the Crucible Studio Theatre next week.

PIANO MAN: Benjamin Frith will be appearing at the festival.

With 18 lunchtime and evening concerts in nine days, and a series of linked events around the city centre, it showcases Sheffield’s Ensemble 360 who, in various permutations, will be responsible for the majority of the events.

We tend to forget that composition of classical music in Russia only began in the mid-part of the 19th century, the festival concentrating on names that have become popular since then – Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

Guest performers include the piano duo of Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith who have unearthed rarely heard arrangements by Rachmaninov and Debussy of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake (May 6).

Recreating a piano recital given in Sheffield by Rachmaninov in 1936, Steven Osborne plays his Etudes Tableaux and works by Brahms and Schubert (May 8), the following evening taking part in Shostakovich’s Piano Quartet.

Closing the festival, Ensemble 360 are on stage to perform excerpts from Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite and Suite for Variety Orchestra (May 13).

Music in the Round May Festival, May 5-13. Details and tickets from 0114 2496000 or www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk