Midlands Classical Music Making

  NORMAN STINCHCOMBE REVIEWS A NEW BOX SET OF HERBERT VON KARAJAN'S 1970s CONCERT RECORDINGS WITH THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC  Live in Berlin 1970-1979: Berlin Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan (Berlin Philharmoniker Recordings 20 CD / SACDs) ★★★★★ Herbert von Karajan was acknowledged as one of the great conductors of the 20th century in the opera house, the concert hall and on disc, selling 300 million LPs and CDs. He was appointed chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1956 and under his leadership it became acknowledged as the world's finest and the combination led to Karajan being dubbed "General Music Director of Europe".  Their partnership ended acrimoniously in 1989 shortly before his death and while there had always been a small cadre of dissenting voices there now came a critical backlash. Some objections were personal as in Karajan's association with the Nazi Party although conductors like Bohm, Knappertsbusch and Furtwangler (infamously photograph...

  TRIUMPHANT HAYDN MASS DESPITE DODGY DECISIONS CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★ Sir Stephen Hough is a man of many talents: painter, poet, novelist, and author of books on music, religion and perfume, while still finding time to be a world-acclaimed pianist and a respected composer. Perhaps his biggest challenge was one made to him by the conductor Omer Meir Wellber's project, inviting composers to reimagine a classical work of their choice. Hough chose Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, which he performed here with his own version of the second movement, possibly an act of musical hubris destined for an embarrassing fall. Hough was aware of the difficulties, "should I write something in his style? I felt it would have been pointless to write faux-Beethoven for this project, but I did want to use some of his original material as a starting point." The movement started intriguingly with a hushed wind chorale soon joined by other instruments with Hough ruminating mo...

                                             CINDERELLA                                                          The Wilmcote Players                                                           Wilmcote Village Hall ***** ...

CECILIA ENSEMBLE                                                           Elgar Concert Hall ***** Royal Birmingham Conservatoire graduate David Quigley, now a valued piano tutor there and at the University of Birmingham,(and I am proud to say a brilliant student of mine many years ago) has conceived a chamber ensemble whose opening concert on January 16 in the Elgar Concert Hall at the University proved a portent of an exciting future. Named after the patron saint of music, the Cecilia Ensemble will be flexible in its personnel; for this Barber Lunchtime Concert the line-up was violinists Caroline Pether, Marie Schreer, violist David Aspin, cellist Nicholas Trygstad, all with awesome credentials, an...