This year's Collection series is at the heart of our celebrations of the Hallé's 150th anniversary. We make a special feature of works whose world or British premieres were given by the orchestra, along with other great masterpieces. We revisit Verdi's Requiem, with a distinguished quartet of soloists and the London Symphony Chorus joining the Hallé Choir. The performance in The Bridgewater Hall in December follows one in St. Paul's Cathedral two nights earlier.

At the heart of our own anniversary celebrations we mark the 50th anniversary, in November, of the death of Sibelius. I will conduct a series of four concerts (one in the Thursday Series) called 'The Origin of Fire' in which all seven symphonies of the great Finnish composer are featured alongside some of Sibelius's little-known songs and brilliant choral music.

Sibelius's work, more passionately championed in Britain than in any other country outside Scandinavia, has been a mainstay of the Hallé repertoire.

At the beginning of the season I look forward to conducting Weber's Jubel Overture, composed for another anniversary and so popular with the orchestra's founder, Sir Charles Hallé, that he conducted it no fewer than 12 times in Manchester alone! In the spring the Hallé's Assistant Conductor, Rory Macdonald, directs a performance of Mozart's wonderful 'Gran Partita' Serenade for 13 winds: the orchestra gave its first British performance under Hallé in 1868.

Michael Schønwandt, Music Director of the Royal Danish Opera, makes his Hallé debut in April and our annual performance of Handel's Messiah will be directed by the Baroque specialist Roy Goodman.

This Collection anniversary series promises to be very special in the life of the Hallé. Please come and enjoy it with us.