Conductor Ian Page and his acclaimed period-instrument orchestra continue their revelatory MOZART 250 project with this remarkable triptych of Haydn symphonies. All three works were written 250 years ago, in 1772, and number among the composer’s most astonishing and original compositions.

Symphony No. 47, with its rousing opening horn-calls, was particularly admired by Mozart, and its palindromic minuet and trio – marked to be played firstly as written and then completely backwards – is an outrageous feat of musical engineering, while No. 46 is full of quirky invention and ‘Sturm und Drang’ turbulence.

The concert culminates with the superb ‘Farewell’ Symphony, its thrillingly iconoclastic opening movement leading eventually to the celebrated coup de théâtre of its ending, whose rare fusion of wit and pathos needs to be experienced live to appreciate fully.

6.15pm: Pre concert talk
Leading Haydn scholar Richard Wigmore sets the scene with an illuminating pre-concert talk.