The Independent Recommends: Classical

ONE OF THE world's greatest violinists, Pinchas Zukerman, celebrates his 50th birthday by teaming up with the English Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven's magnificent Violin Concerto. Aside from playing the precarious solo line, Zukerman himself directs the work; and, in the concert's first half, conducts the orchestra in Mozart's 41st and last symphony, Jupiter.

Barbican Hall, London EC2 (0171-638 8891) 7.30pm

Sir Simon Rattle's successor as Chief Conductor of the CBSO, the Finn Sakari Oramo (right), finds himself maintaining a hectic schedule of concert-giving. In tonight's event, the very young Schubert's assured Symphony No 1 is set alongside Richard Strauss's no less precocious tone poem Death and Transfiguration.

Symphony Hall, Birmingham (0121-212 3333) 7.30pm