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A sultry flute, a shower of sparks, a flash of light and a sensuous, sumptuous wave of pure emotion. In the years before World War One, Debussy and Stravinsky transformed the way we listen: inventing musical colours that dazzled, startled and seduced. Debussy’s ravishing Prélude and Stravinsky’s Firebird open and close a concert filled with fantastic stories and sounds.

Take Lotta Wennäkoski’s new Violin Concerto Prosoidia, for example. The composer imagines music as a wordless conversation – and if any violinist can make it talk, it’s the phenomenal Ilya Gringolts. Roderick Cox conducts, and shares another work that speaks more potently than any words: Grazhyna, a musical tale of courage and struggle from Ukraine’s greatest 20th century composer, Boris Lyatoshinsky.

Eva Ollikainen has had to withdraw from this concert. We are grateful to Roderick Cox who will conduct in her place at short notice.