The world-renowned Basel Symphony Orchestra opens the Leeds International Orchestral Season 2015/16 at Leeds Town Hall on Saturday 26 September.

Under the baton of American conductor Dennis Russell Davies the orchestra will tackle Stravinsky’s notoriously divisive ‘Rite of Spring’, a composition so provocative it provoked a riot at it’s 1913 premiere. They will also perform the music from ‘Marriage at the Eiffel Tower’, a farcical ballet concerning a wedding breakfast at the famous tower, a humpbacked photographer and a lion. Composed by musicians of Les Six, a group of six French musicians whose music represents a strong reaction against the Romanticism and Impressionism popular at the time, this performance is bound to be as witty and fascinating as the story of the ballet itself.

The evening’s soloist, Elisabeth Leonskaja, was regarded as a child prodigy, giving her first concerts as early as age eleven. She will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 9, described by concert pianist Alfred Brendel as ‘one of the greatest wonders of the world’.

Tickets for this concert are priced £12.50-£31.50 and are available from the Box Office on 0113 224 3801 or book online at www.leedsconcertseason.com. Don’t forget that 50% discounts are available for students, under 18s and jobseekers. Plus, if you’re under 26 you can purchase tickets for an orchestral concert for just £5 in the seven days before the concert.

Charlotte Bickley