Midlands Classical Music Making

                                                                          NICOLAOU ENSEMBLE                                                                         All Saints’ Church, Orpington   There can scarcely be anything more heartening for a grizzled old reviewer of n...

  Norman Stinchcombe reviews new discs from Chandos  In 2029 Chandos will celebrate 50 years in the classical music business. It was founded by Brian Couzens, a talented music arranger and recording engineer in 1979, and since his death in 2015 has been managed by his son Ralph. In the early days Chandos started with brass band recordings, a flourishing niche market, but grew to become Britain's leading independent classical music company with a catalogue of 3,000 recordings. The Chandos name has always been synonymous with sound quality: they were one of the first companies to embrace digital recordings and compact discs and regularly release high-definition discs on SACD. In 2024 Chandos was sold to Naxos label founder Klaus Heymann but Ralph Couzens continues to run Chandos as an independent label. As well as sound Chandos is always renowned for series, backing conductor, soloists and orchestras to focus on particular composers. An early success was an outstanding Tchaikovs...

 BIRMINGHAM  BACH CHOIR CONCERT 14 MARCH 2026 St Chad's Cathedral   With its neo-gothic architecture and large crucifix hanging over the sanctuary, St Chad’s provided a highly appropriate backdrop for this concert of sacred music for Lent and Passiontide. The first half consisted entirely of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday, interspersed with four readings beautifully given by Archbishop Bernard Longley.   Gesualdo’s music is not for the faint-hearted and the Responsories are intense and passionate. The music is often highly chromatic and contains many surprising harmonic progressions, key changes, chromaticism and word painting at its most vivid. For the most part, the choir handled the music brilliantly and exploited the drama and text to great effect. The full throated exclamations of ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Salvator’ in Jerusalem surge will stay long in the memory, as will some gorgeous singing by the small ‘versus’ ensemble. Whilst there were just a c...

 What is it with the culturally immature, Americans? Not only do we have a commentary two-hander before the opera which would even disgrace "Match of the Day", we have audiences determined to get in first with their applause even before the end of the magical Love Duet from Madam Butterfly. I have even heard them do this before the end of Wotan's Farewell in Walkure and the Liebestod in Tristan und Isolde, plus the rattling of their seats as they get up to leave. BBC Radio 3, do we really need to be receiving these juvenile relays from New York's Metropolitan Opera? Christopher Morley

                                                 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...