The Hallé with Jess Gillam (saxophone)

Kazuki Yamada brings his superb talents to bear on Tchaikovsky’s much-loved Fifth Symphony. It features a recurrent fate motif and is a passage from despondency to joy. The symphony contains a heart-rending slow movement, a charming waltz and a truly pot-boiling finale.

John Adams is one of America’s most eminent and unique musical voices and a composer with longstanding links to the Hallé. Tonight we hear his jazz-inspired Saxophone Concerto in which the soloist floats and soars to brilliant effect. That soloist is the outstanding Jess Gillam. When, in 2016, she became the first saxophonist to reach the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, she was described as a “life affirming talent”.

The concert takes off in thrilling style with Walton’s Spitfire Prelude and Fugue, music originally written for the 1942 film ‘The First of the Few’. It wowed those early cinema-goers and continues to do so today.

Pre-concert talk with BBC Broadcaster Trisha Cooper starts at 6pm.