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Severed heads, demonic orgies and obsessive love. Jader Bignamini pairs Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with the equally colourful imaginations of Poulenc and Camile Pépin.

‘Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium…’ Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is the musical head-trip to end all head-trips, a no-holds barred phantasmagoria for an enormous orchestra.

And that’s not even the half of it, in a concert that features the massed voices of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Symphony Chorus in Poulenc’s barnstorming Gloria, and which opens with Camille Pépin’s visionary, ravishing Les eaux celestes. Sky gods, lovers, a celestial river and the cowherd of the stars: it’s hard to imagine a better counterpart for Berlioz’s spectacular sonic imagination than the UK premiere of this symphonic retelling of an ancient Chinese myth. Prepare to be transported…

Please note that Jader Bignamini conducts this concert in place of the originally advertised Daniele Rustioni and Elizabeth Watts replaces Sally Matthews as soprano soloist.