Euan Shields, the latest winner of the prestigious Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition and the Hallé’s new Assistant Conductor, takes to the podium to lead the orchestra in a programme that starts and finishes with the music of Beethoven.

To open is the Leonora Overture No.3, a compelling symphonic distillation of the human drama of his only opera, Fidelio; and to close is the Master’s sunny, genial Fourth Symphony, a work with witty contrasts and comedic ideas that focuses on artistic beauty. Making his Hallé concert debut is Ukrainian-British violist Maxim Rysanov. Described in Gramophone as “a prince among viola players”, he plays Bartók’s concerto, which inhabits the more mellow sound world of his later music.