Sounds of the Century: trains, puppets and jazz.

This concert is a bracing plunge into the excitements of the early twentieth century. The pieces here fizz with the thrill of the new sounds around them. ‘Take jazz seriously’ Ravel once scolded the American public: it certainly finds its way into this fabulously funky Piano Concerto. Stravinsky, once the wild child on the scene, brings puppets to life in Petrushka, his 1910 forerunner of Toy Story. We climb aboard a steam train for Honegger’s Pacific 231, while Hindemith gives the strings and brass a major workout. Blistering, energetic and surprising from start to finish.