A harpsichord leading a string quartet in a juddering dance; Orpheus seeking passage into the underworld; a fantastical parade of images caricaturing musical Romanticism. The inspirations for these four pieces by Laurence Osborn range from the quirky and ironic to the deadly serious as they engage with and reflect on classical music’s heritage culture, the bold imaginative world of childhood, and the sometimes uncertain boundary between the mechanical and the human.

RPS Young Artist 2025 award winners GBSR Duo join the string soloists of 12 Ensemble in TOMB!, itself the winner of both an Ivor Novello Award and the RPS Award for Chamber-Scale Composition, while Mahan Esfahani is the virtuoso harpsichordist at the centre of Coin Op Automata.