A new piece, a concerto, a ballet, and a fun bit of banter

Enjoyble prom with an interesting new piece from Helen Grime — the second part of which opens Sunday's concert — a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, possibly the only piece by Tchaikovsky I actually like, and Petrushka to finish. The concert was greatly spiced up by Pekka Kuusisto's hugely entertaining encore. He gave a very funny introduction to the traditional folk song from Karelia:

...this first surfaced in a collection in 1850, this is still time when Russia used to be a part of Finland! depending on your point of view, of course. I was going to make a Brexit joke, but they're not really funny...

He the sang along with the piece as he played it, pointed out that the chorus kept on coming back, and, after a couple of practice attempts, got the audience singing along with him in Finnish. Definitely well above and beyond the usual post-concerto encore!