On Wednesday and Thursday (January 9 and 10) Sir Simon Rattle will lead the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in a programme including ‘let me tell you’, the song cycle with words by Manorbier author Paul Griffiths, based on his 2008 novel.

All of the composers represented are Scandinavian, starting with Sibelius (Symphony No. 7), continuing with Hans Abrahamsen (‘let me tell you’) and ending with Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4, ‘The Inextinguishable’.

The second performance will be broadcast live on Radio 3, starting at 7:30pm.

The London concerts follow a tour of Germany and Austria last autumn, starting in Dresden and ending in Vienna, under the baton of Czech conductor Jakub Hruša.

Next week will be Sir Simon’s first performances of the piece. Although it was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra while he was music director there, the premiere was given by the orchestra in 2013 with Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons. It was at the Proms in 2016 that ‘let me tell you’ had its London premiere, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by its Lithuanian music director, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla. Counting the LSO next week, the piece will have been performed by thirteen different orchestras, highly unusual for a twenty-first-century work.

The LSO is joined by Nova Scotian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, who asked the Berlin Philharmonic to commission the work and who has sung all performances to date.

‘Let me tell you’ has won prizes in Britain, the United States and Europe with praise from critics in every country where it is performed.

Paul Griffiths and Simon Rattle have long shared an enthusiasm for works by living composers. During his time as music director of the orchestra in Birmingham, Rattle joked in a BBC interview that, if he presented his Birmingham programmes in London, “no one would come except my mother and Paul Griffiths.”

Years on, this is the first time the two have worked on the same piece of music.

Paul Griffiths is known in Manorbier for his near-daily walks on the coast path and is a regular on the 349 bus to and from Tenby with his laptop and his little spaniel, Jessye.