Explore what's on: Friday 19 June 2009

Pacific 231 transforms the orchestra into a steam engine, starting off with jagged chords slowly staggering from a standstill to become a well-oiled machine – a sonic train tearing through the night.

There is a similar energy in Ravel’s concerto, its jazz-inflected rhythms and sweeping harmonies were written for Paul Wittgenstein, a remarkable Austrian pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War. Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony has been described as a kind of ‘1913 version of the television show 24’ – a vigorous climb and exhilarating descent of a mountain taking place in one day, squeezed into an hour of edge-of your- seat musical drama…