Sir Mark Elder has a special affinity with Brahms, capturing the essence and chiselled clarity of the music to unleash its expressive power – the perfect synthesis of heart and head.

Preceding it are two works from masters of the orchestra – glittering, shimmering music based on legend and fairy tales revelling in the thrilling kaleidoscope of orchestral colour. Rimsky-Korsakov has called the orchestral suite culled from his fantasy opera ‘little pictures’ and they are soaked in dark-hued, Russian folk melodies. Ravel’s ballet brings to life nursery-rhyme figures from all our childhoods – Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast and Prince Charming amongst others – in music of delicacy, charm and exquisite tenderness.