Conductor Zvonimir Hacko returns to Cadogan Hall with The Hanover Band to present one of music’s most iconic and transcendent works: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the ‘Choral’. This is the symphony that changed everything – the moment when a great composer dared to add the human voice to the symphonic form, setting Schiller’s Ode to Joy to music that has inspired millions ever since. It remains one of the most joyful, unified and profoundly moving pieces ever composed.

Before the Ninth comes a masterpiece of virtuosic brilliance; Mendelssohn’s spirited Piano Concerto No. 1 brings together two great Romantic sensibilities. With the incomparable Danny Driver at the keyboard – an interpreter of rare sensitivity and technical command – this is an opportunity to hear one of the finest pianists of his generation showcasing an essential work of early Romanticism.

Opening the evening is Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, a thrilling symphonic tone-poem that sets the stage for the magnificence to follow.

The Hanover Band, specialists in historically informed performance with an international reputation for excellence, brings authentic period-instrument colour to these masterworks, while Zvonimir Hacko’s thoughtful and deeply committed conducting draws out the full emotional and musical depth of these extraordinary scores.