Commissioned by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé and Stravinsky’s the Rite of Spring were premiered barely a year apart in 1912 and 1913. We all know what happened next. Perish the thought that, in programming the two together, the BBC Philharmonic is anticipating the next cataclysmic shift in world events; but these brutal, beautiful pieces still create a disquieting soundtrack for destabilised times.

The Rite remains one of the most visceral experiences you can encounter in a concert hall, and conductor Juanjo Mena’s performance succeeded in leaving you feeling slightly groggy. If the Stravinsky had the impact of a fist, Ravel provided the velvet glove. It is more often heard in abbreviated suite form, and Mena’s decision to perform the complete ballet enabled you to fully appreciate the pattern of leitmotifs that orient Ravel’s pastoral netherworld like landmarks in the mist. Mena whipped up the frenzy of the final orgy by doing star jumps on the podium; the wordless susurrations provided by the Hallé choir held a mystique of its own.

The concert opened with the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Vivo; a short homage to Daphnis and Chloé based on the swooning horn figure that portrays the lovers’ rapture. It was a turbulent piece that seemed to be heading towards a precipice while upholding two different tempos at once, the brass urging restraint while the strings skittered giddily towards the edge. As an overture to the world as we find it today, Lindberg’s curtain-raiser sounded very much like a prelude to disaster.