Looking ahead to 2024 there are so many projects to get excited about. OK, so we say it every year. Yet each OAE season genuinely has its own melody and a distinct rhythm to it, shaped by the repertoire chosen and the guest artists invited by our player members themselves. Less than two years ago Covid-19 restrictions still cast their shadow over concert-going. So each season takes us a little further down the road to recovery and the positivity that each brings is to be cherished.

In February, we are joined by violinist-turned-conductor Riccardo Minasi and soprano Louise Alder in an all-Mozart programme. The playlist opens with a taster of Riccardo conducting Mozart with another symphony named for a city beginning with ‘P’ (No. 38, the ‘Prague’ Symphony); whilst we feature Louise in the piano version of ‘La flûte enchantée’ from Shéhérazade by Ravel taken from her album of French song, Chère Nuit.

Maxim Emelyanychev is back in 2024! If you heard his interpretation of Saint-Saëns’ ‘Organ’ Symphony, which had the audience jumping out of their seats then you’ll be trembling with anticipation to hear what happens when he puts our players and their instruments to work on Sibelius and Rachmaninov in April. Here he conducts his Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony (more on Mendelssohn in a bit), whilst we have the last movement of Sibelius 5 from Simon Rattle, one of our principal guest artists, in his CBSO days.