The Hallé Orchestra, Boris Giltburg

The great American composer John Adams has long been associated with the Hallé. For what is effectively a choral symphony, Harmonium, he set poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson, texts that suited his vision of 'human voices riding upon waves of rippling sound'.

One of the first of Adams' mature masterpieces, it is a remarkable experience. So too is Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, a tour de force of the Romantic piano repertoire.

The soloist is Boris Giltburg, described by Gramophone as 'a truly memorable Rachmaninov interpreter'. After the concerto Nicholas Collon directs Ravel's delightful suite of waltzes, Valses nobles et sentimentales, all of them orchestrated in the French composer's inimitable style.