Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra together form one of the UK’s most esteemed musical partnerships – as well as being regular and much-loved visitors to the International Festival across many years.

The LSO stands among the world’s truly great orchestras, while Rattle has long been revered for his pioneering vision of music, his championing of little-known works and the power and spontaneity of his exuberant musical performances.

Despite their serious credentials, musical jokes are high on both conductor and orchestra’s agenda at their International Festival concert. After all, who couldn’t do with some humour to lift the spirits?

In his riotous Divertissement, Jacques Ibert’s intention was to put a smile on your face. Richard Strauss might be more sober in the incidental music he wrote for Molière’s satirical Le bourgeois gentilhomme, though it reaches its comic conclusion in a musical feast that quotes classics from across the repertoire.

It’s also the music, in its intended dramatic setting, planned as the first part of a gargantuan theatrical/operatic evening culminating in Ariadne auf Naxos, which gets its own International Festival performance on 25, 27 and 29 August. Hear both works to discover the grandeur and high-flying wit of Strauss’s original vision.