This eclectic programme, ranging as it does from Eastern European folk music, through Latin American rhythms, to jazz from recent history, is considered by the LSO to be Simon Rattle’s most ambitious programme yet.

The LSC’s contribution is in Szymanowski’s Harnasie, which was originally written as a ballet-pantomime by the composer between 1923 and 1931, to a libretto by Jerzy Rytard and his wife and Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, the librettist of Szymanowski’s opera, King Roger.  The ballet was first performed in Prague in 1935, and proved an exceptional success for the composer the following year when it was staged in Paris.

Other pieces in this evening’s concert are: Bartok Hungarian Peasant Songs, Stravinsky Ebony Concerto, Osvaldo Golijov arr. Gonzalo Grau Nazareno (with the piano duo Katia and Marielle Labeque) and Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs.