Concert-goers around the world agree that New Year and Viennese music make an unbeatable combination – and St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s concert in the cathedral on Wednesday, January 1, at 7pm, showcases works that happily follow that tradition.

Star billing goes to Mozart’s celebrated Horn Concerto No 4 to be played by Ben Goldscheider, a 22-year-old whose career has soared since he was the brass finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition.

Ben Goldscheider, although still studying at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, is acknowledged as one of Britain’s most exciting young players. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2018 and released his first album the same year, prompting BBC Music Magazine to feature him as a ‘Rising Star’ and Gramophone magazine as ‘One to Watch’.

The orchestra will also perform music by the Strauss family, including Johan the Elder’s Radetzky March and his son’s Egyptian March.

Music from Beethoven’s only opera Leonora will also feature.

The Bavarian composer Richard Strauss’ stirring tone poem Don Juan features prominently in the New Year programme. Promiscuous on a legendary scale, the central figure of Strauss’s music is a man on a mission to find the ideal woman.

St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Wednesday, January 1, 7pm. Details: 01727 890290 stalbanscathedral.org