Sax in the City | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

2014 would have been the 200th birthday of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, and all the pieces on tonight’s programme feature the instrument in different ways. Imagine a giant orchestra playing an epic symphony: roof-raising climaxes, ecstatic love-scenes and tune after hummable tune. Now imagine bathing a baby to all that. It’s just an ordinary night in with Richard Strauss and family, as portrayed in his intimate Symphonia Domestica – the grand finale of our Strauss Edition.

US saxophone star Timothy McAllister makes his Liverpool debut in the concerto that John Adams wrote for him in 2013, and Petrenko and the Orchestra put on their dancing shoes to join George Gershwin on a tuneful taxi-ride through jazz-age Paris.