From towering trees to whispering waters and a bustling fairground: three works that let the orchestra breathe, shimmer, and burst into colour in every imaginable shade.

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Joan Tower’s Sequoia opens with raw energy. Like the giant tree it’s named after, the music grows in strength and complexity — a pulsing current of rhythm and sound.

In Camille Pépin’s Les Eaux célestes, the orchestra transforms into light and air. Sparkling, fluid, and full of nuance, her music evokes a world that feels both delicate and radiant.

After the break, Stravinsky’s Petrouchka erupts: a vibrant ballet in four scenes. A fairground, three puppets, a tragic fate — and an orchestra that bubbles, skips, snaps, and sings.

Writing Petrouchka liberated Stravinsky: he found his own voice and self-confidence to deal with harmony and tonality in a radically different way. He mixed folk tunes, popular French chanson and Viennese waltzes in a colourful orchestration, used sharp dissonances and contrasting rhythms, making the orchestra sound like a gigantic accordion one minute and a balalaika the next.

A real tour de force and the creation of the exciting and unprecedented soundscape with which Stravinsky would change the world forever.