City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Ravel’s delicate and affectionate evocation of the baroque glories of French music was a reaction to the destruction he saw in the First World War. Prokofiev said that his fifth and last piano concerto ‘had enough melodies to make three concertos’. Its five movements are packed with rhythmic vitality and unpredictable beauty. The heartfelt slow movement is particularly memorable. Brahms’ radiant Second Symphony was written while on holiday in the summer of 1877 and is predominantly warm, lyrical and tender, before an explosion of joy in the finale.