Having done Shostakovich to mark the centenary of his birth, Manchester now moves on to Mozart, born 250 years ago this year.

All 23 of Mozart's original piano concertos (he borrowed the music of others for the first four) will be performed in the city's Bridgewater Hall in six days in a festival beginning tomorrow.

Six orchestras and 19 soloists take part in Britain's most concentrated Mozart celebration, which also includes as a contrast key works by Penderecki and Messiaen.

"The piano concertos are among Mozart's finest works and give an indication of every facet of him as a creator," said Barry Douglas, director of the Manchester piano festival. "For those who want to buy into the lot, it will be a fascinating journey."

The sequence begins with the first fully original concerto (the fifth) and ends on Sunday with the last (the 27th) but the journey will not be chronological, with concerts mixing early and mature works and also including the concertos for two and three pianos.

"When I took over as festival director I realised it was the Mozart year and that we could do a complete cycle of the sonatas, the chamber music with piano or the concertos," said Mr Douglas, who appears, sometimes simultaneously, as both conductor and soloist. "It seemed that a concerto cycle would be a way to show the talent we have here."

Manchester's three resident orchestras, the Hallé, the BBC Philharmonic and the Manchester Camerata, take part, plus the orchestras of the city's two specialist education centres, Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. Douglas, Irish by birth but now living in France, will also bring his own Camerata Ireland to Manchester.

Since Mozart told his father that some works could be played without wind parts and even by solo strings, four concertos will be given with string quartet and double bass. Mozart said of 12 and 13: "There are passages here and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction. But these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why."

The concerto series is complemented by educational events, late-night and lunchtime concerts, and talks, including philosopher Roger Scruton reflecting on what Mozart means to him.

There will also be audience participation: Steinway have shipped into the Bridgewater's foyer a collection of grand pianos which visitors are invited to play.