Established in 1902, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra make their first visit to Birmingham with the American conductor, Theodore Kuchar, whose own roots lie in Ukraine. As Chief Conductor since 2022, they’ve been flying the flag for Ukrainian music-making with international tours and important collaborative projects in Poland and Germany.

An attention-grabbing snare drum sets the scene for Rossini’s cheerful overture. Then the mood changes in Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony – which received its UK premiere in Birmingham Town Hall in 1912 – as chill winds whip through music that’s dark and brooding. The internationally-renowned cellist Jiří Bárta joins the orchestra’s leader in the Double Concerto that Brahms intended as an olive branch to his estranged friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Full of glorious romanticism, this is both intimate chamber music and full-blooded orchestral writing.

Beethoven’s Second Symphony ends the concert as it began, with joy and sparkle, a rollicking first movement and a spirited finale.