Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha [Vera Elma Vacek]

CAREERS in music come and go like buses, sometimes with long waits between. And an example was the pianist Christian Blackshaw: a big name on the concert circuit until family tragedy forced him to step back from public performances and he effectively disappeared. But the memory of his genius – especially in Mozart – lived on. After years of absence, he returned. And he’s at Wigmore Hall, July 25, playing Tchaikovsky and Chopin. Potentially very special. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Next day at the Wigmore, July 26, is Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, the exuberant South African soprano who should have won the 2021 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition but didn’t (juries get things wrong). Be dazzled by her in this programme of Duparc and Strauss. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Another big voice, Freddie de Tommaso (English tenor with Italian name and sound) has a day to himself at Opera Holland Park, July 28, giving masterclasses in the afternoon and a recital in the evening. operahollandpark.com

And if you’re game for radical rereadings of old operatic favourites, the annual Grimeborn Festival is running at the Arcola Theatre, Dalston, with a trimmed-down take on Donizetti’s Elixir of Love. July 29-Aug 2. Only problem: the Arcola’s confined spaces can get sweaty on a hot night. arcolatheatre.com

• This year is the 90th birthday of composer Arvo Pärt who, along with John Tavener, was a founding father of the simple, slow, repeating-pattern school of music nicknamed (for reasons of its spiritual leanings) Holy Minimalism. If you think you don’t know his work, you do – because his meditative Spiegel in Spiegel gets heard in a 1001 versions on Classic FM and Radio 3 (whose playlists are all but identical these days), soulful TV dramas and commercials for up-market luxuries you probably can’t afford.

On July 26 at Hampstead Parish Church he gets a tribute concert from perhaps the best semi-pro choir in London, the Holst Singers, conducted by the very eminent Stephen Layton. holstsingers.com

But if you want more Arvo Pärt, he also features in a late-night Prom, July 31, sung by the visiting Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir: an ensemble that enjoys a close relationship with the composer, he being Estonian. And that brings me to the musical conveyor-belt of this week’s events at the Albert Hall. bbc.co.uk/proms

It’s Week 2 of the Proms, with a lot of visiting orchestras, two of them from north of the border: the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, July 25, with a not so tartan programme of Saint-Säens’ “Egyptian” Piano Concerto and Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, followed by the BBC Scottish Symphony, July 27 & 28, playing heavyweight Bruckner and Birtwistle. July 30 brings the National Orchestra of Wales playing Rachmaninov. And looking ahead because it’s a hot ticket, the Halle Orchestra come down from Manchester, Aug 2, with their new conductor Kahchun Wong and Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony. Always a show-stopper.

But the most incendiary of hot Proms tickets you need to plan ahead for is August 1 when the young Korean pianist Yunchan Lim plays Rachmaninov’s 4th Concerto with the City of Birming­ham Symphony. Lim is that rare thing, a starry Instagram phenomenon who comes with genuine, unquestionable sub­stance. That he’s still so young, just 21, makes it the more amazing.

All Proms concerts are relayed live on Radio 3. Some get televised. Full details: bbc.co.uk/proms