Valentine's Day is a day for love and tonight is going to be an evening for the great love songs.

Richard Balcombe will raise his baton at 7.30pm and the longest-running live radio show in British history will be broadcast on Radio 2.

The orchestra, last seen in Brighton with versions of the Rodgers and Hart musicals Pal Joey and On Your Toes, will be joined by two excellent interpreters of the love song, Stacey Kent and Curtis Stigers.

Stigers is a former member of a punk rock band and known for his 1991 pop hits I Wonder Why and For Peace, Love And Understanding from The Bodyguard film soundtrack.

He said: "Guys like the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and so on wrote some superb songs that are as relevant today as they were when they were written.

"They told great stories, universal truths and made us happy. There are great songwriters today but the music is more categorised so it seems harder to find them.

"As a kid growing up in Idaho, I heard all these great songs on the radio and on records and learned the power and strength of them.

"What distinguishes a great song is its melody. It has to grab your heart, along with the witty lyrics and the story itself.

"Although these songs are universal, they are also intensely personal. No one hears the same song in exactly the same way.

"We hear them at different times in our lives and in different moods. We make them fit our own circumstances. This is how we get the idea a particular song is our tune."

Stigers is now firmly back to his jazz roots, touring with a trio and with a new album under his belt, The Secret Heart.

He said: "Originally, I was a horn player, playing saxophone and clarinet and singing. I took time to explore the pop scene and then the punk and blues areas. I have never wanted to confine myself to one category."

Influences have included a range of people including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and Frank Sinatra.

"I must admit there are some songs, Sinatra's in particular, which I stay away from. They are so quintessentially his that I do not have the nerve to do them."

Not so for colleague Stacey Kent who will sing duets with him at Brighton for the first time.

She says: "I will tackle anything and everything. It sounds like arrogance but it really isn't. I just love the great songs and try to make them mine for the moment I sing them."

Curtis adds: "Although I have a three-year-old daughter I help to bring up, I do love to be on the road.

"All I want to do tonight is to bring a little love and some great songs into the lives of all of you."

Tickets cost £10 to £25. Call 01273 709709.