Guided by conductor Elim Chan, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra meets two dazzling soloists.

First, Alison Balsom – described as ‘simply divine’ by the Sunday Telegraph – performs the Scottish premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s playful Trumpet Concerto. Jazz, blues and classical music combine in this bold exploration of everything the instrument can do. The piece takes inspiration from the trumpeting call of an elephant to celebrated jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong.

Then, the ‘extraordinary visionary’ (Wall Street Journal) Pierre-Laurent Aimard turns to Arnold Schoenberg's inventive Piano Concerto, which the composer wrote while exiled in the United States during World War II. The concert closes with Witold Lutosławski’s folkloric Concerto for Orchestra, inspired by the music traditions of the Kurpie region in Poland.

Arrive early at Usher Hall to enjoy a pop-up performance from Brass, Aye at 4.00–5.30pm.

This concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on 16 September 2024 as a ‘Radio 3 in Concert’.