British conductor Alpesh Chauhan, Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company, is a fast-rising star: “This was a strong debut”, commented The Times, about his Hallé concert last year.

Thomas Adès, the Hallé’s Artist in Residence for two seasons, launches his residency with his Three-Piece Suite, drawn from his brilliant comic opera Powder Her Face. Scattered with witty allusions to waltzes, foxtrots and tangos, its plot centres around Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, whose notorious sex life, exposed during her divorce proceeding in 1963, caused a scandal.

Admired for offering the listener a fresh, often unexpected, perspective on familiar pieces, Steven Osborne brings his imaginative, thought-provoking playing to Shostakovich’s resplendently liberated Second Piano Concerto, best known for its exquisitely beautiful 2nd movement.

Fate dominates Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which he translated into an often turbulent yet ultimately transformative work. Its slow movement is blessed too with one of the most glorious horn solos in the entire orchestral repertoire.