The programme will include the A minor violin concerto, one of Bach’s greatest tributes to Vivaldi, and two Brandenburg Concertos, the brilliant no. 3 in G major, and the intimate no. 6 in B flat. There will be two less familiar works, the F major oboe concerto and the great C minor concerto for violin and oboe, the probable first versions of works that only survive as harpsichord arrangements made by Bach in Leipzig in the 1730s.

This programme evokes midnight mass in a Baroque Austrian church, and includes Mozart’s Mass in D major K194, pastorellas by Haydn and his central European contemporaries, a violin concerto by Haydn, and seasonal instrumental music by J. J. Fux and Gregor Werner.

Schubert’s String Quartet in D minor D810, called ‘Death and the Maiden’ because it contains a set of variations on his own song of the same title, has always been deservedly popular since it was composed in 1824. In this programme it is contrasted with one of Mendelssohn’s greatest quartets, op. 44, no. 1 in D major (1838), and rarities by Luigi Cherubini and Louis Spohr.

Handel wrote the first version of Esther in 1718, while he was working for the Duke of Chandos at Canons near Edgware. As Handel’s first English oratorio, and the prototype for later and better-known works, its historical importance has long been recognised, though it is rarely performed, particularly in its intimate original version.