Debussy’s sultry Prelude is a work that seems to stretch and yawn in a still, stifling heat. But wake up: we’ve a hike to go on later. Akutagawa’s 'Triptyque for string orchestra' - full of driving rhythms and echoes of Stravinsky, Britten, and the composer’s friend Shostakovich - should get pulses racing.
So you’ll be raring to go by the time conductor Yutaka Sado leads us on a cross-country ramble (uncertain weather and all) through Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the musical equivalent of inhaling lungfuls of fresh air.
