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Music for beginnings and endings. It’s hard to find a more famous, or iconically flamboyant first few seconds than the clarinet solo at the start of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. ‘Metropolitan madness’ and a ‘musical kaleidoscope of America’ is how Gershwin described this musical montage of the jazz age.

From the Roaring Twenties to the streets of 1950s New York, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story launches headlong into the high drama and searing rhythmic energy of one of the greatest musicals of all time. To open, Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration captures the final moments of a life – the ticking clock in a dark room, existential struggle, a flood of memories before finally, transcendence.

This event is part of Manchester Classical a vibrant celebration of the city’s dynamic classical music scene.