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Fantasy and folklore lead the way in our continuing birthday celebrations of French musical royalty, Maurice Ravel and Pierre Boulez. Notations finds Boulez at his most bold and brilliant, reimagining a series of jewelled piano miniatures for orchestra. Pianist Betrand Chamayou joins the orchestra for Ravel’s left hand Piano Concerto, whilst Mother Goose carries us off to an enchanting world of make believe. Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty find Ravel at his most sumptuous.

‘I have spent my life trying to create a kind of cathedral of sound’. The words of Sofia Gubaidulina, one of the most significant living composers in the world. Her music, deeply spiritual and dramatic, forms the backbone of tonight’s celebration of International Women’s Day. In this programme, Anja Bihlmaier makes her Manchester debut as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor and explores this kaleidoscopic programme. There’s the UK premiere of Dreydl by the genre-defying Olga Neuwirth, alongside music from American Sarah Gibson – beyond the beyond is a BBC commission, written as Sarah’s joy at becoming a mother was tempered by a progressive and terminal illness. This performance will see the posthumous premiere of the work.

Grieg's beloved 'Peer Gynt Suite No.1' will transport you to the rustic mountainsides of Norway, as you revel in the famous 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'. Then, be swept up in the passion and lyricism of Bruch's soaring 'Violin Concerto No. 1', performed with breath-taking virtuosity by the "simply spectacular” (The Independent) British violinist Jennifer Pike. The concert closes with two iconic works from Finland's greatest composer, Jean Sibelius. The mighty 'Symphony No.3' conjures visions of vast pine forests and icy northern vistas with its thrilling grandeur. And the stirring 'Karelia Suite' evokes the resilient spirit of the Finnish people through majestic brass chorales and folk-inspired melodies.

We’re off to the wilds of Scandinavia! Northern Lights, midnight sun and a smorgasbord of Nordic greats. Chief Conductor John Storgårds has a natural affinity with this music and is the dedicatee of tonight’s opener, the thrilling, most recent symphony of Danish composer Per Nørgård, a mind-bending kaleidoscope for large orchestra. Sorgårds has been called a “master architect” of this great symphonist, as revealed in his recorded cycle of all the symphonies with the orchestra.

The pipes of the Bridgewater Hall organ get a full wash, wax and valet tonight with a performance characterised by Romantic splendour. Saint-Saëns’s spectacular Third Symphony takes us on a dramatic journey from darkness to light, and gave us the theme music to the iconic pig-based classic, Babe.

Italy. Land of sun, sea and serious culture – look no further than its great operatic Hall of Fame led by Giuseppe Verdi (that’s Joe Green to you and me). Inspired by Shakespeare’s tragic Othello, soprano Mariangela Sicilia joins us for Desdemona’s poignant soliloquy. There’s a cameo from Giacomo Puccini, making his mark as a passionate dramatist with his early Symphonic Prelude. The silken Intermezzo from the opera Cavelleria rusticana provides some serenity amidst Pietro Mascagni’s torrid Sicilian drama.

‘I’m going to make it just as anti-war as possible’ – the words of Benjamin Britten about his new work in 1940, a wordless requiem for orchestra. What he created was one of the most taut and direct pacifist artistic statements ever created. Sinfonia da Requiem is as arresting and powerful today as it was at the start of World War II.

Conductor Adam Hickox joins the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Victoria Hall Hanley. A brilliant opportunity to hear rising star Anna Lapwood perform Poulenc's Organ Concerto.

Beethoven may be centre stage, but Shakespeare is once more in the wings for an extraordinary programme conducted by Elena Schwarz. Ophelia, Hamlet’s doomed lover, narrates Hans Abrahamsen’s prize-winning song cycle Let me tell you. With a vivid and virtuosic role, Jennifer France becomes an empowered and defiant heroine worthy of a Scandi drama. Roman General Coriolanus appears in tonight’s curtain raiser; fortunately, Beethoven’s version is more child friendly than Shakespeare’s. Coriolan is also the starting point of Unsuk Chin’s miniature for orchestra, subito con forza. Powerful and impulsive, Unsuk Chin pulls no punches in her homage to Beethoven, surely something he would have approved of!

‘My music is always the voice of nature.’ A hymn to the natural world, Gustav Mahler takes on the elements in a work like no other. Writing for huge forces, Mahler was so consumed by his Third Symphony that he was convinced that it had a life of its own. Indeed, it has all the energy of an offshore wind farm – but whilst this is music of the Earth, it is also music of the soul. Here, Mahler is on a spiritual quest, one of extreme emotional highs and lows. The earthshattering climax is a paean to love.