Midlands Classical Music Making

SAINT-SAENS' "ORGAN SYMPHONY" AS IT SHOULD SOUND CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★ Great support for the CBSO's Benevolent Fund Concert with the "Sold Out" sign on the orchestra's website. The capacity audience was treated to vibrant performances of popular classics with conductor Andrew Litton and soloist Thomas Trotter giving their services free. Trotter, Birmingham City Organist since 1983, was cheered to the gods for one of his party pieces, the concluding Toccata from Widor's Organ Symphony No. 5. The orchestra stayed in their seats and craned their necks to watch Trotter as he juggled an ostinato figure, an implacably marching bass line and some snazzy decorations all in his (seemingly) effortless style. On disc Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 often has a church organ dubbed, sometimes crudely, on to a studio recording. Here was how it should sound, organ and orchestra blending perfectly and, with the doors to the hall's reverbera...

RICHARD BRATBY THRILLS TO CBSO'S NEW MUSIC THE THRILL OF THE NEW CBSO at Symphony Hall **** "The Thrill of the New" was how it was billed, and with the CBSO scheduled to give some 40 premieres over its two centenary seasons, the idea seems to have been to offer a painless introduction to new(ish) music for – shall we say? – the more traditionally-inclined concertgoer. So Michael Seal conducted an appetising spread of bite-size modernist favourites dating from 1909 to last month, introduced and explained with colourful visual aids and unapologetic good humour by Paul Rissmann. A reasonably-sized audience was clearly on board with the concept: chuckling at the final deflation of Jörg Widmann's Con Brio (timpanist Tibor Hettich took a well-deserved bow), and sighing after the blissed-out string sonorities of Jennifer Higdon's String Lake. Seal looked after the details without ever letting the sense of direction flag, and the CBSO responded wit...

BIZARRE STAGE LAYOUT MUFFLES MOSCOW PHILHARMONIC SOUND Moscow Philharmonic at Symphony Hall ★★★ This concert was hampered by the orchestra's bizarre presentation decisions. At their request half the choir seating was removed and the back of the concert platform draped in black curtains, and no risers were used so that all players were on the same level. This left the wind section, in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1, attempting to project through the conductor and the raised piano lid. No wonder they sounded muffled, as did the brass players squeezed up against the sound-absorbent curtains. I can't fathom what musical purpose the arrangement was meant to serve but it failed to match the spirited playing of soloist Alexandra Dariescu – her ample power for the famous opening's chords, winning delicacy in the slow movement, and with a silvery touch in the finale. Maria Antal's Event Horizon was receiving its UK premiere. The pieces of hers I've heard ...

ANOTHER FIVE-STAR PERFORMANCE FROM THE SINFONIA OF BIRMINGHAM SINFONIA OF BIRMINGHAM St Mary's Church, Warwick ***** Conductor Michael Seal certainly challenges his Sinfonia of Birmingham players with exciting, hair-raising programmes. The concert venue was St Mary's Church, Warwick – beautiful but very resonant. Passacaglia op 1 by Webern began this mind-blowing evening, A graduation piece in 1908, the 23 variations with highlighted solo strands weaving into shimmering tutti strings, a very busy piece throughout. Another tortured soul, Dmitri Shostakovich , started his Violin Concert no 1 with dark foreboding. Gold medallist Zoe Beyers riveted the audience with her overwhelming, sensitive deliverance of a tour-de-force, from almost inaudible silken threads, to foot-stamping burlesque-style wildness. (Oistrakh described this work as "demonic.") Hectic , crazy, sparkling finished this outstanding performance to cheering from an excited audience. ...

AMAZING WAGNER FROM THE FINEST NON-PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRA IN THE LAND DAS RHEINGOLD Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra at Symphony Hall ***** The horrors entailed in actually making it into Symphony Hall -- road closures because of the Great Birmingham Run, the ongoing Nightmare on Broad Street, lack of access into the ICC Mall, the renovations going on in the foyer -- were made wonderfully worthwhile by this mind-blowing performance of Wagner's Rheingold by what just has to be the finest non-professional orchestra in the land. Conductor Michael Lloyd insists upon the highest possible playing standards from the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, and judging from the reactions of the amazed audience emerging at the end of the afternoon he is achieving marvels. For this account of the most perfect opera in Wagner's Ring tetralogy he had prepared his musicians meticulously, with the result that come the show he was able to pace everything with a natural flow, balanc...

                A WONDERFUL START TO ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN'S NEW SEASON                                       ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN                                     Royal Birmingham Conservatoire ***** Orchestra of the Swan's latest residency at the RBC began with an intriguing programme entitled "Tales of the City". Yes, urban soundscapes were certainly there, but we also heard a beautifully evocative aural image of the landscape of Cumberland and Westmoreland. This was Through Cumbrian Hills by RBC composition ...

NORMAN STINCHCOMBE ENTHUSES OVER NEW RELEASES OF BARTOK AND VAUGHAN WILLIAMS BARTOK BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE: Relyea / DeYoung / Bergen Philharmonic / Gardner (Chandos CD / SACD CHSA 5237) ★★★★★ In 2014 American mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung sang Judit in a concert performance of Bluebeard's Castle with the CBSO under Edward Gardner. She was magnificent, combining intelligence, passion and fearless singing – a feat she repeats here. Her compatriot John Relyea is a sonorous firm-toned Bluebeard, not as biting as some Slav basses but one who makes a convincingly romantic husband for his young fatally inquisitive bride. The heart of this opera comes when the fifth of the mysterious castle's seven doors is opened. The opera uses Bartok's biggest orchestra and here he unleashes it to spectacular effect. On disc, stripped of scenic effects, the music is all. The combination of the Bergen players skill, Gardner's masterly pacing and the Chandos engineers' expertise ...

AN EXCITING NEW SEASON FOR EX CATHEDRA'S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY EX CATHEDRA by Christopher Morley "Yes, 50 years!" gasps Jeffrey Skidmore almost incredulously as we sit down for our annual lunch at Cielo in Birmingham's Brindley Place. We're there to talk about the forthcoming season of Ex Cathedra, the chamber choir Jeffrey founded half-a-century ago (coinciding with my own debut as music critic for the Birmingham Post), and a choir whose reputation has grown worldwide from its original Lichfield and Birmingham bases. Jeffrey has never had any ambitions to move away from his vibrant creation. "I'm happy to have been in one place," he says, "like the composers Lassus, Monteverdi, De Lalande, Bach, Juan de Aranjo in Sucre, Bolivia, and John Joubert here in Birmingham!" The Bolivian reference is pertinent, as Jeffrey has done so much work researching the church music of baroque composers in South America, music which c...

A CONCERT OF REAL ADVENTURE CBSO Symphony Hall ***** If the CBSO's programme continues to be as adventurous as tonight's during its two-year-long centenary celebrations which have just begun, then we're in for a fascinating journey. Three British rarities kicked off with the Second Symphony of the 25-year-old Ruth Gipps, premiered by George Weldon and the then City of Birmingham Orchestra almost exactly 73 years ago. A protegee of Weldon's, she had been the CBO's second oboe and principal cor anglais until gossip about their relationship forced her resignation. The symphony is a real find, strongly scored and structured, often redolent of Vaughan Williams (Gipps' teacher), and vibrant with personality. It is in fact a "War Symphony", conflict disturbing a pastoral idyll, and with a stamina-sapping snare-drum part which evokes Shostakovich's recent Leningrad Symphony. Often this 20-minute work has the evocative power of film-musi...

SHEKU'S ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO WITH THE CBSO FLOWS NATURALLY SHEKU PLAYS ELGAR CBSO at Symphony Hall ***** The concert opened with a slightly frustrating arrangement for brass, winds and percussion by Steven Stucky, of music written in 1694 for the funeral of Queen Mary II by Henry Purcell. Orchestrating another's music throws up all sorts of stylistic issues and has resulted in some fascinating and rewarding new compositions, but although the CBSO's brass section produced a resonant and mellifluous sound punctuated by a forceful funereal tread with timpani and percussion, the brief ten minute work seemed neither one thing nor the other. Not quite Purcell, but also without enough of Stucky's personality. The CBSO has had a close association with the rising star, Sheku Kanneh-Mason for three years now. This sold-out evening was advertised as "Sheku plays Elgar" and his fan club was vociferously in evidence, even before he played a note. He wear...

A WONDERFUL, CIVILISED EVENING AT BRETFORTON'S THEATREBARN "CAREFUL THE TALE YOU TELL" Theatrebarn, Bretforton, Evesham ***** It's heart-warming to feel the palpable sense of goodwill surrounding Theatrebarn. This newly-revived theatre-dining experience takes place in a cosy, intimate little raked theatre with a fabulous acoustic in a converted barn, and with lavish kitchens and comfortable post-show dining areas attached. Saturday's was the second production from this reborn enterprise, "Careful the tale you tell" featuring three well-known performers in the Whately family -- actors Kevin and wife Madelaine Newton and their singer daughter Kitty -- in a sequence of slightly scary readings and music making the listener want to curl up safely in front of a comforting fire (the comfort here came with the brilliant food afterwards). This was the world premiere of this presentation, and it certainly deserves to be heard again. Kevin and Madela...

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN ESTABLISHES MORE RESIDENCIES IN THE REGION ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN by Christopher Morley Though its home base remains in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Orchestra of the Swan this season is establishing residencies in various parts of the West Midlands region, each one with its own aims and character. "We want to create an immersion in a mood for each residency," explains OOTS managing director Debbie Jagla. "We want to engage with each community and its characters, and we will have links with local partners in each residency, "Hereford is rural, so we are linking ourselves with local schools in the countryside, involving assemblies, open rehearsals, appearing in village halls and doing workshops in schools for children with special educational needs. "Our base will be the Courtyard Theatre in Edgar Street, and OOTS will be the only orchestra to appear there for the next three years.! Orchestra of the Swan has had a long-establis...

A WONDERFUL LAUNCH TO THE CBSO'S CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS A CHILD OF OUR TIME CBSO at Symphony Hall ***** Such is the power of Tippett's settings of Afro-American spirituals in his oratorio a Child of Our Time that they are still with me as I write, even after negotiating the roadwork horrors of Broad Street compounded by a water-main burst in the excavations. Tippett's idea was to bring universality into his composition, much as Bach used Lutheran chorales in his Passions, and it certainly works. What didn't quite work was Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla's idealism in involving us, the audience, into their delivery. It all seemed a trifle half-hearted. Never mind. Hers was a wonderfully engaging account of this masterpiece, launching two years of celebrations for the CBSO's centenary in 2020. There will have been players tonight who recorded the work under the composer's frail baton in 1991, soon after the opening of this magnificent hall, but here now was ...

NORMAN STINCHCOMBE REVIEWS JOHN WILSON'S THRILLING ACCOUNT OF KORNGOLD'S SYMPHONY IN F SHARP, AND A MIXED COMPLETE BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATA SET FROM IGOR LEVIT KORNGOLD: Sinfonia of London / Wilson (Chandos CD / SACD CHSA 5220) ★★★★★ Korngold was a child prodigy, hailed as a genius by Mahler. Fleeing the Nazis he became an Oscar-winning composer of Hollywood film music– ensuring vilification from the musical establishment. His Symphony in F sharp (1954) is a fine work of late romanticism, its huge orchestra used with immense skill. This is a terrific recording with conductor John Wilson, at home in Hollywood shows tunes and the core classics, eliciting a thrilling performance from the Sinfonia of London, a famous name in the 1950s newly reformed. The Chandos engineers exploit the generous acoustic of St Augustine's Church, Kilburn to create a stupendously wide-ranging recording. The opening movement is brooding and doom-laden – floor-shaking basses – but Wilson revels...

JOHN WOOLRICH PREMIERE A HIGHLIGHT OF NEW BROMSGROVE CONCERTS SEASON BROMSGROVE CONCERTS by Christopher Morley Year on year, Bromsgrove Concerts continues to provide a refreshing mix of established and contemporary music in its annual seasons, an exemplar to other societies with its lightness of touch mixing the old and the new. Pianists and strings are the thread running throughout Bromsgrove's 2019-2020 prospectus, with plenty more besides, and Luke Jones kicks off the season on Friday 27 September. This young pianist was winner of the Bromsgrove Competition in 2018, and he returns to the town with a challenging programme of Debussy's Images Book I, Ravel's Miroirs, Schumann's Waldszenen and Prokofiev's wartime Sonata no.8, with one of the most gracious slow movements ever written. The recital is given in the splendid Routh Hall at Bromsgrove School (8pm), and events for the rest of the season revert to the equally-accommodating Artrix (with...

AN ENJOYABLE 85TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, BUT THE EMPEROR WORE HIS NEW CLOTHES BIRTWISTLE BIRTHDAY CONCERT Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at the CBSO Centre **** The respect and admiration the concert-going public holds for Sir Harrison Birtwistle were evidently clear in a sellout house for BCMG's celebration of the composer's 85th birthday. Birtwistle was among us, hearing the premiere of BCMG's latest Sound Investment commission, his ...when falling asleep, a setting for soaring soprano of poetry by Rilke and for speaker, fragments adapted from Swinburne's elegy for Baudelaire, Ave atque vale. This is an alter ego genre Birtwistle has made his own, and it works mesmerically well, atmospheric and enthralling as the protagonists (soprano Alice Rossi, expressive reciter Simone Leona Hueber) gradually merge in a developing empathy. The tiny BCMG ensemble responded deftly under Geoffrey Paterson's clear direction. Two other Birtwistle works framed this ...

MORE EXUBERANCE NEEDED FROM THESE RUSSIAN-BRITISH YOUNGSTERS BRITTEN-SHOSTAKOVICH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Symphony Halll ★★★★ During the Cold War a friendship was struck up between Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten which is marked in the name of this new youth orchestra made up of students from conservatoires in the United Kingdom and Russia. This was their UK debut under British conductor Jan Latham-König, who works in Russia. The theme of Anglo-Russian musical friendship was fittingly represented by pianist Pavel Kolesnikov – Siberian born but a Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow domiciled in London. His wonderfully sensitive performance of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini eschewed virtuoso razzmatazz and egregious flashiness and reminded us that so much of the soloist's part, while requiring immense dexterity, is delicate and restrained. The famous 18th variation was not milked for sentiment, instead Kolesnikov seemed simply to reveal its beauty – the a...

BRITTEN MEETS BRAHMS, BOTH IN VALEDICTORY MODE GILDAS QUARTET Stratford Play House **** The irony is that Benjamin Britten loathed the music of Johannes Brahms, playing through the German composer's music to remind himself how bad it was. (and it's equally ironic that they appear next to each other on library shelves). Yet in this well-programmed Stratford Festival programme they rubbed along sympathetically side-by-side, with the last major work each of them produced before dying at a very similar age. Britten's Third String Quartet carries such an armoury of expression within its structural resources, not least a concluding Passacaglia which sets the seal on all his instrumental achievements, and completed in his beloved Venice. The youthful Gildas Quartet marshalled huge reserves of energy and colour in delivering this demanding piece, nuanced, alert and understanding, leaving us (and I guess themselves) emotionally drained as we reached the shattered con...

RODERICK WILLIAMS TAKES US ON A VERY SPECIAL WINTER JOURNEY RODERICK WILLIAMS AND CHRISTOPHER GLYNN Stratford Playhouse ***** The standing ovation which acclaimed the end of this amazing recital was genuinely well-deserved, and this grizzled, grumpy old critic happily joined in. Roderick Williams and pianist ("accompanist" is too diminishing a word to use in such a context) Christopher Glynn had just delivered a mesmerising, totally involving account of Schubert's Winterreise, here in a new English translation by Jeremy Sams. This translation is elegant and sincere, true to the spirit of Wilhelm Muller's German original, and we are left wondering whether this Winter Journey was not an actual pilgrimage, but in fact a trawl of the soul. And Williams certainly brought out this ambivalence, pacing around and through this in-the-round audience for the opening concert of the Stratford Music Festival, even sometimes sitting among us, communicating both with the...

      -----Original Message----- From: Norman Stinchcombe <stinchcombe1953@gmail.com> To: Christopher Morley <cfmorley47@aol.com> Sent: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 10:38 Subject: Re: Our blog Hi Chris This is a massive advertising spam aimed at selling online courses in computer training: "Python" refers to the computer language not the snake. Instead of spam arriving in emails it attaches itself to the comment section in blogs. BlogSpot.com, on top which I believe our blog sits, must be particularly vulnerable. A site called "The Magic of Music" has been affected with identical comment postings. See here:  https://govindvenu.blogspot.com/2018/07/blog-post.html As has this blog on cycling: https://stridersandriders.blogspot.com/2017/01/mountain-bike-race-save-date.html And this blog on the student radio site run by MIT students: http://www.jacobmiske.com/p/music-and-art.html Clearly BlogSpot ...

NORMAN STINCHCOMBE REVIEWS CD RELEASES OF BANTOCK AND THE ARMONICO CONSORT BANTOCK REDISCOVERED: Marchant (Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0183) ★★★ Sir Granville Bantock is a composer whose music is worth rediscovering. But I don't think that this album of his piano music, despite the excellent playing of Maria Marchant and fine recording quality, will make many converts. Bantock's talent was for orchestral music; his Pagan and Hebridean symphonies and brilliant tone poem Thalaba the Destroyer – a dead ringer for Tchaikovsky's Manfred – in terrific recordings conducted by Vernon Handley (Hyperion) are the place to start. One hopes we'll hear some during the CBSO centenary celebrations – his overture Saul was the first piece the orchestra played in 1920. Marchant plays a piano reduction of it but, since Bantock was no Liszt, it's not a patch on the original. The other music here, twenty-two short pieces, are all pleasant and well-crafted but, however felicitous Marchant...

A NEW STUDENT ORCHESTRA CROSSES WHAT WAS ONCE THE IRON CURTAIN BRITTEN-SHOSTAKOVICH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA by Christopher Morley An exciting new orchestra made up of 86 music students from conservatoires in the United Kingdom and Russia makes its UK debut at Symphony Hall on September 17. The Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra has been formed to pay tribute to the legendary friendship between those two great composers, brokered by the great cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who refused to allow tensions between East and West to interfere with his message of worldwide musical companionship. After inaugural concerts in Sochi, St Petersburg and Moscow the B-SFO crosses the North Sea for a UK tour beginning in Birmingham and ending at London's Cadogan Hall. They bring a delicious programme of Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Pavel Kolesnikov the piano soloist), excerpts from Pr...