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Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft takes to the podium to conduct the world premiere of Composer-in-Association, Gavin Higgins’ A Monstrous Little Suite from his opera The Monstrous Child, before HÃ¥ken Hardenberger makes a much anticipated return to Â鶹Éç NOW for one of the finest concertos of its kind, Weinberg’s playful, suspenseful and witty Trumpet Concerto. With shadows of darkness, to a hobbling waltz, this concerto ingeniously quotes music from some of the most popular works in existence, from Bizet’s Carmen to Stravinsky’s Petrushka, from Mendelssohn’s iconic Wedding March to Mahler’s fifth.

Dark drama contrasts outright giddiness in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, demonstrating kaleidoscopic variation at its most vivid. A long, yearningly sombre and stunningly beautiful slow opening movement gives way to two breathtaking scherzos with effervescent melody and mood galloping through the orchestra in this fizzing, almost raucous musical circus.