Heath Quartet play Wigmore Hall [Kaupo Kikkas]

EVER heard of Lyatoshynsky, Garayev, Tertevian? Me neither. But if we lived somewhere like Azerbaijan, Armenia or Ukraine it would be different, because these are composers who have ranked among the movers/shakers of modern cultural life in those countries. And though their music has never gained much currency in the West, it has a champion in Kirill Karabits, the Ukrainian conductor who for the past 15 years has been (very successfully) in charge at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

During that time, he’s organised various projects down in Bournemouth to try and make this music better known – with the result, I’m told, that people on the harbourside at Poole are commonly heard whistling Garayev’s best tunes. And as Karabits’s time there is now coming to a close, he’s bringing his last big project to London – with a whole day of concerts called Voices from the East: Azerbaijan & Turkmenistan running morning, afternoon and evening at the Royal Festival Hall, May 19.

It’s the sort of event for which the audience will need open ears and minds. But with that proviso, it could be a day of momentous discovery. southbankcentre.co.uk

• You don’t always know what’s coming, either, with Crouch End Festival Chorus, because they’re one of the most adventurous large-scale choirs in London and make a habit of venturing beyond the safety of standard rep. But in 40 years’ existence under founder-conductor David Temple they have a track record for good choices done effectively. And they have an interesting a cappella (which is to say unaccompanied) programme at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, May 18, based around the magnificent though not so often heard G Minor Mass by Vaughan Williams. By way of contrast, they do it alongside items from the recently published Oxford book of choral works by black composers. cefc.org.uk

• There’s more choral music, organised around a theme about the Power of Love, at St John’s Waterloo, May 17, sung by the group Londinium: londinium-voices.org.uk And if you like songs about animals, they’re the theme for a free 1pm recital at Regent’s Hall, Oxford Street, also May 17, given by soprano Mariana Rodrigues. No booking, just turn up.

But the classiest solo singing of the week will come either May 18, when Iestyn Davies and Mary Bevan join forces for duets by Handel at St John’s Smith Square (sjss.org.uk), or May 23 lunchtime when the glamorous Albanian diva Ermonela Jaho performs Italian opera arias at Wigmore Hall with conductor-pianist Carlo Rizzi (wigmore-hall.org.uk)

• Other Wigmore Hall highlights this week include the charismatic pianist Pavel Kolesnikov playing an eclectic programme – Couperin to Messiaen, via Ravel and Ades – on May 22. And on the evening of May 23 the always strong and forthright Heath Quartet have a concert that features music by Henriëtte Bosmans, a mid-20th century composer rediscovered. Born in Holland to a Jewish mother, she managed to avoid deportation when the Nazis arrived in the Second World War, helped by influential friends who recognised her talent. But her career lost traction. And it’s only been very recently that her work has come to light – not least at the BBC where she was not so long ago the subject of a major profile. Worth exploring. wigmore-hall.org.uk