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In this week's podcast Nicola Christie meets award-winning British pianist Stephen Hough, who is performing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2, Times columnist David Aaronovitch discusses Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, and we ask the public - what do you make of the Proms today?

Performing the Second, Hough wraps up a mighty Proms celebration of one of Russia's most famous and virtiosic composers.

"I think Rachmaninov is the star of any concert he's in", says Hough. "It's over 100 years since the Second Concerto was written and it's more popular than ever. People react to this piece, it touches them, the melodies excite people, and musicologists agree that this is very good stuff."

Next, David Aaronovitch on Shostakovich's Symphony No 10: "It's grown-up music, exactly the kind of music I like. It takes some concentration and work. It helps if you know some background. This is a man writing music in a brutal age of vast and impersonal change. It is actually written with one of his students in mind, an Azerbaijan-Georgian-Jewish woman."

Finally, a new piece of music from composer Will Dutta, who reworks Stravinsky's piece The Firebird. You can hear more of this piece, and all the new works commissioned for the Proms, at Promcast.co.uk .

You can listen either way. Sign-up in iTunes and you will receive every episode direct to your computer as we release them. Alternatively visit timesonline.co.uk/proms every Friday to listen to the latest podcast as an MP3.

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