CBSO
Little, CBSO, Seal, Symphony Hall BirminghamFriday, 02 June 2017
The CBSO is justifiably proud of its association with Benjamin Britten. There’s rather less proof that he reciprocated, dismissing the orchestra as "second-rate" after it premiered his War Requiem in 1962. Throughout the 1950s, he’d repeatedly... Read more... |
CBSO, Wilson, Symphony Hall BirminghamThursday, 11 May 2017
It’s been said – and with some justification – that John Wilson’s own Orchestra has the finest-sounding string section in the world today. What’s certain is that when Wilson guests with other orchestras, he transforms their string sound. It’s not... Read more... |
Dego, CBSO, Rustioni, Symphony Hall, BirminghamThursday, 09 March 2017
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari has never quite been a one-work composer. No points for knowing the fizzy overture to his delightful 1909 pro-smoking comedy Il segreto di Susanna; quite a few more if you know the whole opera. Extra credit for being able to hum... Read more... |
Hardenberger, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall BirminghamFriday, 13 January 2017
Birmingham audiences are a supportive bunch. There was never much likelihood that they’d greet Andris Nelsons’s first Birmingham appearance since he departed for Boston in 2015 with less than the same warmth that they keep for other former CBSO... Read more... |
CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall BirminghamThursday, 17 November 2016
Is there anything on a concert programme more guaranteed to make the heart lift – or to prove that a conductor has their musical priorities straight – than a Haydn symphony? If you're tired of Haydn, you're tired of life: there’s no music more... Read more... |
Trevigne, CBSO, Chauhan, Symphony Hall, BirminghamSaturday, 08 October 2016
Bruckner’s Third Symphony doesn’t so much begin as become audible. A steady heartbeat in the bass, oscillating violas lit from within by clarinets, and in the middle, slowly pulling clear of the texture, the proud, sombre trumpet motif to which... Read more... |
Prom 55: Hannigan, CBSO, Gražinytė-TylaSunday, 28 August 2016
If ever there was a Prom to put London’s classical crowd in their place, to remind us (as those outside the capital so frequently and justifiably do) that the city isn’t the be-all and end-all of concert-going, then this was it. It featured three... Read more... |
Falstaff, CBSO, Gardner, Symphony Hall BirminghamThursday, 14 July 2016
Edward Gardner gives the downbeat, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra bursts into Verdi’s great opening guffaw. Enter stage left Graham Clark, as Dr Caius. Enter stage right Ambrogio Maestri, as Falstaff. And before a note has been sung,... Read more... |
CBSO, McGegan, Symphony Hall BirminghamThursday, 02 June 2016
“Our Shakespeare” is the name of the CBSO’s current season. They're making the same point that Ben Elton makes slightly less subtly in Upstart Crow: that Shakespeare was basically a Brummie. And by implication, that four centuries of musical... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 14Sunday, 22 May 2016
Another of Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic global radio shows. Star of this month's show is the Trinidadian Calypso Queen Calypso Rose, whose new album Far From Home, to be released in July, is given a sneak preview here. Then there is the usual wild,... Read more... |
Coote, CBSO, Wilson, Symphony Hall BirminghamSaturday, 07 May 2016
Can it be true? Was this really the CBSO’s first performance of Bax’s The Garden of Fand? OK, Bax is hardly mainstream repertoire, and if Oramo or Rattle had conducted it, someone would have remembered. Further back in the orchestra’s 96-year... Read more... |
Tharaud, CBSO, Volkov, Symphony Hall BirminghamFriday, 29 April 2016
Left, alone, Hans Abrahamsen’s new piano concerto for the left hand, swirls out of the darkness to a jagged motor rhythm. Piano and orchestra clash and interlock; you’re reminded of Prokofiev and Ravel. Then something happens. A piano plays, but the... Read more... |
