City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are at Butterworth Hall on Wednesday 9 December, with Music Director Kazuki Yamada conducting. It's a programme that puts Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker alongside two pieces that push it into jazz territory.

Yamada opens with a selection from The Nutcracker, the ballet most of us know by heart. Then comes the twist: The Nutcracker Suite, Tchaikovsky's themes reimagined by Duke Ellington and arranger Billy Strayhorn in 1949 for Woody Herman. It's the same music, but swung into a big-band sound. Between the two, there's Leonard Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, a triptych for solo clarinet and ensemble written six years later and dedicated to Benny Goodman. Clarinetist Oliver Janes takes the lead on that one.

If you're not usually one for the pre-show talk, this might be the night to change your mind. Helen Martin runs one at 6.15pm in the Helen Martin Studio, so you can get the background on the programme before the concert starts. It's £6, or £4 if you've booked an Orchestral Ticket Package.

The concert starts at 7.30pm and runs for two hours including an interval. Tickets are £47.50, with a student and under-26s price of £15.50, and parties of ten or more get one ticket free. The CBSO also does Orchestral Ticket Packages, with discounts of up to 18% when you book multiple concerts.