ONCE again the Urban Council is treating the territory to a week of Midsummer Classics, with six concerts at the Cultural Centre Concert Hall by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, ranging from Western classics to Canto-pop.
The performances begin with ''Summer Love'' (August 7 and 8), a selection of popular Cantonese and Mandarin melodies. Folk songs from Russia and China feature in ''Folkloric Favourites'' (August 9) and Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev are the composers spotlighted in ''Ballet, Ballet'' (August 11) with the perennial favourites, the Swan Lake and Nutcracker suites and Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1.
And there are plenty of hardy annuals guaranteed in ''Neapolitan and Operatic Delights'' (August 12) from O Sole Mio and Santa Lucia to arias from Verdi's La Traviata and Rigoletto, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and works by Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Borodin. No Nessun dorma, I'm afraid.
The orchestra, conducted by the distinguished French musician with a not very French name and a Legion d'honneur, Antonio de Almeida, will be ''Totally Tchaikovsky'' on August 13, with the violin soloist Marat Bisengaliev. Needless to say, the 1812 Overture, Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 5 are featured. Tickets through Urbtix.
Strangely enough, Tchaikovsky is featured in both concerts by the Asian Youth Orchestra next week at the Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Next Tuesday the orchestra is joined by pianist Alicia de Larrocha for the Overture to Romeo and Juliet, Ravel's Concerto in G for Piano and Orchestra and selections from Romeo and Juliet. Cho-Liang Lin is the violin soloist in the second concert conducted by Sergiu Comissiona on August 6, which features Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World.
And prize-winning pianist Lisa Loh will include works by Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Mendelssohn and Scriabin in her recital at the City Hall Theatre on August 5. Tickets through Urbtix.
