BBC Philharmonic ft. Wicker Man composer Gary Carpenter, Peter Maxwell Davies & more at Bridgewater Hall

The BBC Philharmonic will perform a concert featuring contemporary composers with a local connection on Friday 21 February. The orchestra will premiere saxophone concerto SET by RNCM professor Gary Carpenter – the composer responsible for The Wicker Man and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy soundtracks – with living jazz legend Iain Ballamy. The programme also features three of the BBC Phil’s recent and current Composers/Conductors: Salford-born Peter Maxwell Davies’ (pictured) Throstle’s Nest Junction – located just across the Ship Canal from the orchestra’s home in MediaCityUK – is an atmospheric musical tram-ride through a Lancashire childhood; Dancing in the Dark, by the orchestra’s current Composer/Conductor HK Gruber, takes an anguished look back at the vanished world of his own Viennese youth; and his predecessor James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie overwhelmed audiences sobbing at the 1990 Proms. With the latter two works conducted by the composers themselves, the concert promises to show that new music really can deliver timeless feeling. Tickets in the stalls cost just £10.

Fri 21 Feb, The Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley Street, M2 3WS, Tel: 0844 907 9000, 7.30pm, £10 – £35, tickets.bridgewater-hall.co.uk