A tribute to Haydn’s insatiable genius and ironic spirituality, with this electrifying programme that concludes with Ligeti’s enchanting sound textures—intricate polyphonies in which music seems both to be born and to disintegrate.

Premiered in 1792 among the flurry of London concerts happening at the time, the Symphonie concertante (for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and orchestra) is an eloquent piece in which Haydn not only includes a majestic recitative for violin but also reveals his great fondness for the bassoon.

Next comes the more famous ‘Il Distratto’ Symphony (titled after a French play inspired by La Bruyère’s Les Caractères), which retains the theatricality of incidental music: in turn boisterous, pompous and martial, it is full of surprise effects, incongruities and ‘organised chaos’, including a character so scatter-brained that the day of his wedding he has to ‘tie a knot in his handkerchief to remember he is the groom’.

In modern counterpoint, Ligeti’s Kammerkonzert (1970) enchants with its interweaving timbres and rhythmic structures. No one soloist takes the spotlight in this paradoxical ‘concerto’; rather, the undulating magic of this fascinating piece is the product of the astonishing collective virtuosity.