© Chris Dawes Two recent concertos by Michael Nyman receive premiere performances this spring. Percussion virtuoso Colin Currie is the soloist in the UK premiere of gdm in Liverpool in April, while Emmanuele Arciuli and the RAI Orchestra give the world premiere performance of Piano Concerto No 2 in Florence in February.

The title of gdm refers to Nyman’s love of the London Routemaster bus, and to London mayor Ken Livingstone’s statement that only a “ghastly dehumanised moron” would take it out of service – shortly before he did exactly that. Nyman’s Piano Concerto No.2 was commissioned for the re-opening of the famous Venaria gardens in Turin, but has had to wait eight months for a premiere performance, after a planned open-air concert was cancelled due to heavy rain.