Midlands Classical Music Making

                                                            MY 2025 HIGHLIGHTS Two outstanding events at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, right at the end of the year, crowned my highlights, one a welcome back reunion, the other a fond farewell. In November Sir Simon Rattle returned to the concert-hall he had fought for for years, bringing the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to such a standard that it was crying out for a performing space of world-class excellence, and in Hall 2 of the International Convention Centre they certainly got it. Having achieved so much for the orchestra, Rattle left in 1998, since then holding principal conductorships with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London S...

  DAVID QUIGLEY AND THE CECILIA ENSEMBLE                                     (for 15.1.26)   There are tales of musicians finding inspiration as the result of a dream: the violinist-composer Tartini and his “Devil’s Trill” Sonata, Schumann dreaming that the angels had sent him his Violin Concerto, Wagner’s Walther dreaming of the Prize Song that was to make him a Mastersinger.   And now we have pianist David Quigley, inspired by St Cecilia, patron saint of music, in the naming of his fledgling chamber ensemble, as he tells me, returning from a Christmas break in his native Ireland. “The name has a special significance for me. There is, of course, the connection with St Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians, but the decision became clear in a much more personal way. My maternal ...