Dawn Upshaw, Anthony Marwood and Yevgeny Sudbin are among the guests at the ACO’s pre-fortieth birthday party.

The ACO pay no heed to the ‘play-it-safe and profit’ business rationale that has been in the air of late. One year away from its big four-zero, 2014 promises to be brave and risky, which makes it all the more appealing. It’s a season that lauds the value of collaboration – from the great music-making partnerships that form the core of the orchestra to the cooperative alliances between musician and composer and ground-breaking new works produced through discussion between artforms and genres.

To start with, there’s Timeline, a whirlwind romp through music history presented as part of Vivid LIVE. This ambitious production throws together the ACO, a cappella soloists, a visual spectacular and some special musical guests. Works on display will span the entire spectrum of antiquity from ancient Aboriginal chants to Hildegard von Bingen, Monteverdi, the great classical composers, Bartók and Schoenberg all the way up to Pink Floyd and Mariah Carey. Channeling his inner Dr Who, Tognetti labels the performance “musical time traveling”, informing us that “before you go to bed on the night of Timeline, you’ll have heard 42,000...