Celebrated for their inspired, sometimes provocative programming, the London Symphony Orchestra and visionary Music Director Sir Simon Rattle bring a typically wide-ranging concert to International Festival 2022, with four powerful pieces that interconnect with threads of music and ideas.

Young British composer Daniel Kidane draws on his Russian and Eritrean roots – as well as grime and urban sounds – in his sensuous music and has quickly established himself as one of the UK’s most exciting new classical voices. His new work Sun Poem sits alongside the swashbuckling exuberance of Berlioz’s overture Le corsaire.

Rattle has long been a committed and insightful Sibelius interpreter: the composer’s final Symphony concentrates all of a traditional symphony’s drama and activity into 20 minutes of overwhelming emotional power. Bartók shocked early audiences with the audaciousness of his X-rated ballet The Miraculous Mandarin: a wild, sensuous, deeply erotic piece.

In memory of George Dewar