Sir Stephen Hough performs with Hallé and Sir Mark Elder for the European premiere of his piano concerto The World of Yesterday on 16 May, commissioned by the orchestra. He describes the piece as having ​“several meanings. It is borrowed from Stefan Zweig’s eponymous memoir with its celebration of Viennese culture before the First World War: the world as it used to be; nostalgia as both literal and legend.”

The programme also includes Dvořák’s Scherzo capriccioso, Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody for Orchestra and Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma.