After a three-year gestation, the world premiere of Green Mass is the exciting event in the diary of 62-year-old Russian composer Alexander Raskatov this weekend (30 January). Celebrating the beauty of the environment, it is a setting for orchestra, soloists and chorus of the six movements of the Latin Mass interspersed with five poems on nature in different modern languages. The auspicious unveiling takes place at the mighty Royal Festival Hall in the second half of a programme given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under its chief conductor Vladimir Jurowski, a younger, admiring friend and compatriot of the composer. The Mass shades that other great work to Mother Nature, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, in the first half.Raskatov is one of the foremost Russian composers working