The Hallé with Alpesh Chauhan and Elisabeth Brauss, piano

Alpesh Chauhan is a conductor going places. The 33-year old Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company has been impressing orchestras and audiences worldwide and has been compared to the young Sir Simon Rattle. He’s joined by another rising star in German pianist Elisabeth Brauss. Still in her twenties, the former BBC New Generation Artist is already acclaimed for exceptionally mature performances and a natural ability to connect with audiences. For her Nottingham concerto debut she’ll be performing Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto. Written whilst the young composer holidayed in Denmark in 1868 it was to become his most significant orchestral work, its dramatic power allied to his familiar lyricism.

Darker drama comes in the shape of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, which delivers a thorough emotional shredding. Shostakovich often found himself at odds with Stalin’s regime and the dictator’s iron fist is felt in the demonic energy of the hair-raising central allegro. Elsewhere Shostakovich presents a poignant self-portrait, his initials repeatedly inscribed by a keening French horn. But if all of this suggests a grim vision of the artist in a hostile environment then the finale banishes the demons with a defiant flourish in the symphony’s tearaway conclusion.

Free pre-concert talk, 6.20pm in the auditorium: Alpesh Chauhan in conversation.