Midlands Classical Music Making

                                                 PRESTO MUSIC OF LEAMINGTON SPA  I don't intend starting a twilight career as an influencer, but I have just had the most fantastic service from Presto Music of Leamington Spa.  I ordered a score online last night, but having placed the order I looked more closely at my cluttered shelves and realised I already possessed it. This morning I called Presto as soon as they opened, and the care and efficiency of the lady on the phone could not have been more charming. Order cancelled! At the bottom of a review there is always a mention if an event is to be repeated. This is a review of Presto Music, with its amazing range of sheet music, scores, CDs, and so much else. Christopher Morley

  THE CBSO BENEVOLENT FUND CONCERT: GREAT CAUSE, GREAT MUSIC! CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★★ Who is the greatest storyteller of all time? Homer, Shakespeare or Dickens perhaps? None of the above. It's a young girl of immense pluck and ingenuity called Scheherazade who captivated King Shahryar, murderously disgruntled at the infidelity of his first wife, with her ability to tell him a captivating tale every evening for 1,001 nights. She employed the two great rules of entertainment; the cliff-hanger ending, and "always leave your audience wanting more", spinning out the yarns of Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor. She saved her life, got her man and became the inspiration for Rimsky-Korsakov's wonderfully colourful and gloriously romantic orchestral suite 'Scheherazade'. The composer gave the four sections titles, Sinbad is named in the first, but there's no strict programme, and he wrote, "All I desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic m...

  Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases Ravel, Orchestra Works and Operas: Soloists, Orchestre National de Lyon / Slatkin (Naxos 8 CDs) ★★★★ Here's a musical treasure trove, very well played and recorded, adeptly conducted and at a bargain price. As well as Ravel's orchestral music, both rarities and favourites, we also have a selection of Ravel as orchestrator, most famously in his now standard version of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition'; Ravel as completer of unfinished works as in the re-orchestrated selections from Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite 'Antar' and opera 'Mlada', with interpolations of his own music for a theatre production, a premiere recording by Slatkin; Ravel the opera composer with his two delightful miniature masterpieces. Slatkin was a keen Ravel conductor in his early days with his St Louis orchestra and if the Lyon forces are less bold and dashing they have greater refinement and subtlety. In...