Online: Bartók, Ligeti and Haydn | London Symphony Orchestra

Folk songs go to town, as three composers take a handful of freshly picked melodies and give them an urban twist in this exuberant concert.

The young György Ligeti grew up amongst the hills of Transylvania. Béla Bartók gathered raw folk dances straight from the wild, then distilled their spirit into a riotous toast to the city of Budapest. And Joseph Haydn crowned his journey from the fields of Central Europe to the streets of Georgian London with a symphony that brims over with warmth and wit.

This is music that still breathes the air of the countryside, magically transformed by three of the liveliest and most original musical imaginations of all time. Sir John Eliot Gardiner has an unparalleled flair for musical colour, and from Ligeti’s blazing fiddles to the London street-cries of Haydn’s last (and some would say greatest) symphony, he won’t stint on energy – or humour.

Free to watch on Marquee TV for seven days (with registration); then available on demand via a subscription.