In Concert – Natalya Romaniw, CBSO / Eduardo Strausser: Shekhar, Richard Strauss & Brahms

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Natalya Romaniw (soprano, below), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Eduardo Strausser (above)

Shekhar Lumina (2020) [UK Premiere]
Richard Strauss Vier letzte Lieder (1948)
Brahms Symphony no.4 in E minor Op.98 (1884-5)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 4 February 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Pictures (c) Rodrigo Levy (Eduardo Strausser), Frances Marshall (Natalya Romaniw)

Eduardo Strausser has been welcome visitor to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on several earlier occasions (see elsewhere on this website), with this afternoon’s programme demonstrating a keen ear for his juxtaposing of contemporary music and established classics.

Equally well-established as an instrumentalist and multi-media artist, Nina Shekhar (b.1995) is an Indian-American with a substantial output to her credit – not least Lumina. Premiered in Los Angeles and subsequently heard across the United States, its eventful 12 minutes explore what she has described as ‘‘… the spectrum of light and dark and the murkiness in between’’. The incremental emergence of sound and texture brings Ligeti’s 1960s pieces to mind, while the build-up of its central phase towards a culmination of palpable emotional fervour is both adeptly managed and powerfully sustained, before the gradual return to its inward origin. The present performance left little doubt as to Strausser’s belief in this music, even if that opening stage would have benefitted from a more attentive response by some of those in the audience.

Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs is too frequently encountered in concert these days, so that it takes something special to make one reflect anew on its achievement as among the greatest of musical swansongs. This account got off to rather an inauspicious start – Natalya Romaniw overwrought in the vernal deftness of Frühling, not aided by overly opaque textures – though it subsequently came into its own. Arguably the most perfectly realized of all orchestral songs, September found an enticing balance between joy and resignation, while if leader Jonathan Martindale’s solo in Beim Schlafengehen was not quite flawless, it eschewed sentimentality to a (surprisingly?) rare degree. Im Abendrot rounded off the performance with Romaniw’s eloquent retreat into an orchestral backdrop which itself faded into serene and rapt fulfilment.

If by no means his final work, Brahms’s Fourth Symphony surely marks the onset of his final creative period. In its overtly austere sound-world and an abundance of hymn-like or chorale-inflected themes, it is also the most Bachian of his orchestral works but Strausser was right to offset this aspect against that surging emotion as underlies even the most speculative passages of its opening movement. The coda built methodically yet not a little impulsively towards an apotheosis as dramatic as anything by this most Classically inclined of Romantic composers.

After this, the Andante emerged in all its autumnal warmth and expressive poignancy – if not the most perfectly realized Brahms slow movement then surely the most profound. Bracingly energetic if never headlong, the scherzo prepared unerringly for the finale – the effectiveness of its passacaglia format having on occasion been questioned, while conveniently overlooking that parallel sonata-form dynamism such as galvanizes this movement on its intended course. Suffice to add that the closing pages felt as inevitable as any performance in recent memory.

Overall, a fine showing for the CBSO – notably its woodwind and brass – and Strausser, who will hopefully return soon. The orchestra is heard later this month with Omar Meir Wellber in a no less stimulating programme of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with Haydn’s ‘Nelson’ Mass.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on conductor Eduardo Strausser soprano Natalya Romaniw and composer Nina Shekhar

Published post no.2,791 – Saturday 7 February 2026

On Paper – People Always Surprise You: Intriguing Tales of Fact and Fiction by Victor S Jones

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People Always Surprise You: Intriguing Tales of Fact & Fiction
by Victor S. Jones
Vanguard Press [80pp, softback, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-83671-183-4, £6.99]

by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Victor Jones here publishes his first book, a collection of short stories whose compactness belie the depth of their observations on and insights into what might reasonably be termed the ‘human condition’, informed by an outlook such as never becomes cynical or negatory.

What are the stories like?

Having worked as advertising copywriter then manager of his own business, Jones is well placed to explore the myriad nooks and crannies of everyday existence that, in reality, are anything but normal – a loaded adjective if ever there was one. The eight stories contained herein underline this tenet to varying degrees, with a common factor being that moment of epiphany which comes about through even the most mundane of circumstances. Several of these stories might well be considered as moralities for what is a decidedly post-moral era.

The shortest if certainly not the lightest of these stories, All that glitters… is an instance of flash fiction at its acutest in that revelation such as emanates from above rather than below. With its scenario of spiritual riches being played off – knowingly – against financial wealth, The Violin equates most directly to those Tales of the Unexpected with which Roald Dahl entertained and provoked earlier generations, notwithstanding the appreciable difference in Jones’s literary manner. Outwardly the most realistic story, A Night at the Opera relates an occasion that almost everyone finds themself in sooner or later. Its snatching hilarity out of the jaws of embarrassment is in pointed contrast with V1 & V2 Nazi Rockets, when Hitler’s weapons of mass destruction facilitated an existential circumstance pertinent to this author.

The longest and most descriptive among these stories, Back From the Dead centres on two children in the ‘Baltic Alps’ whose actions during one severe winter enshrine that fusion of innocence with experience so often envisaged but so rarely encountered. Something rather more humorous is conveyed by Chinese Meals, a situation-comedy where customs culinary and interpersonal are related with tangible authenticity. If hardly the deepest story, Concord is arguably the most subtly realized given its conflating historical overview with that ‘lived through’ immediacy as galvanizes a cautionary tale of technical triumph and human failure. Missing Peaks affords a more ironic perspective, its ‘get rich quick’ message now seeming   as typical of its time as almost any other and hence an ideal way to round off this collection.

Does it all work?

It does, not least for that skill and evident enjoyment with which Jones elides between fact and fiction across the course of what is an expertly crafted while always arresting sequence. Throughout, he evinces an eye for detail and an ear for nuance which are hallmarks of any worthwhile short stories, so making them seem anything but literary exercises. More than that, however, these stories merge into a cohesive and enlightening composite – but whether of the author himself or of an imagined ‘everyman’ needs be left for each reader to decide.

Is it recommended?

It is. Stylishly presented with its scene-setting sketches (by the author?) as frontispiece to each story, this collection is short enough to be read at a single sitting if substantial enough for repeated readings. The follow-up volume is planned and should be worth waiting for.

Buy

Click here to explore purchase options from the author’s website

Published post no.2,790 – Friday 6 February 2026

On Record – Barry Adamson: SCALA!!! Original Soundtrack (Mute)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Barry Adamson and the Scala cinema in London’s King’s Cross were made for each other. The former Magazine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds member has thrived in a solo capacity, where his work has painted vivid pictures and scenes, many of them cinematic – so he was a natural choice for this project.

Dubbed “The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-Up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits”, SCALA!!! Is a tribute to the adventurous programming, the all-night screenings and live performances that became synonymous with the building. The docu-film itself features interviews with John Waters, Peter Strickland, Mark Moore, Ben Wheatley and Adamson himself, a natural choice to portray these figures and so much more in music.

His score includes references to the cinema’s resident cats, some of the films the cinema screened and a few of the artists that played there.

What’s the music like?

Full of character. Adamson’s score teems with life and is packed with musical incident and colour, painting his subject with uncanny accuracy and using references that knit together really well.

The styles vary wildly and entertainingly, with tracks that range from barely longer than half a minute to fully fledged instrumental songs, each one evoking a scene. The loose limbed funk of Scala Posters (Mondo Bongo) is a highlight, like an excerpt from a detective soundtrack. The dubby As Steve Woolley Sees It and the swirly Acid Celluloid are pocket-sized bits of fun, while the excellent Barry’s Iranian Embassy Blues has a compelling urgency. Spandau Politics is a lot of fun, a kind of one-fingered keyboard bossa nova cousin to Joe Jackson’s Stepping Out.

On occasion some of Adamson’s brief but brooding interludes create a spirit of paranoia and expectation, looking nervously around.

Contrasting with this are the booming drums of Another All Nighter, while the baleful trumpet leading the crashing cymbals of the End Title is definitely calling time on the night, especially when we cut to the lithe bass on its own.

Does it all work?

It does. Short but sweet, this is a fine set of intoxicating music.

Is it recommended?

It is – with the proviso that you should watch the film, too! Barry Adamson has clearly had a lot of fun here, and his musical versatility brings great colour, humour and unbridled funk to proceedings. An old school pop soundtrack, in the best possible way.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,789 – Thursday 5 February 2026

On Record – David Moore: Graze The Bell (RVNG Intl.)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

David Moore is best known for his work as part of New York-based Bing & Ruth, yet here goes it alone on his first official solo piano release.

The cover, designed by Moore and embroidered one stitch at a time, reflects the care Moore takes with his music, looking to reflect personal experiences in transcendental piano music.

The album was recorded live on a Steinway piano at the Oktaven Audio studio in Mt. Vernon, New York. The press release reveals that producer Ben Kane and assistant Owen Mulholland, “reinforcing Moore’s experimental approach…creatively misused pitch-correcting software to orchestrate the different registers of the piano’s tonal profile”.

What’s the music like?

Moore’s signature flowing style is present and correct here, once again turning the mind inwards in a rather magical way. After a hesitant start, Then a Valley releases a torrent of notes, flowing downstream and down the piano with an easy yet inevitable progress. Moore controls the ebb and flow of these waters with expert ease.

It is an immensely reassuring yet subtly powerful sound, a bottomless well of notes that contains a great deal of positive energy but also a subtle, lasting melancholy, explored most explicitly on All This Has To Give through the rumble of the piano’s lower register.

Moore’s intimate explorations create a world of emotion, privately expressed but often giving the impression that he is projecting wide into the natural world. Offering and Rush Creek are powerful examples of this, but there are still moments of contemplation to offset the rapids, with No Deeper and Will We Be There suggesting the softer side of Satie or Debussy.

Does it all work?

It does. Moore’s world is a private yet accessible one, quelling the anxious mind with its thoughts.

Is it recommended?

Yes, enthusiastically. If you have enjoyed the music of Bing & Ruth then David Moore’s solo work is a natural progression. Beautifully played and recorded, it is a welcome antidote to the stresses and strains of modern living!

Listen / Buy

Click here to read Arcana’s interview with David Moore from summer 2020.

Published post no.2,788 – Wednesday 4 February 2026

On Record – Pullman: III (Western Vinyl)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is the keenly awaited follow-up to Pullman’s second album Viewfinder, released a whole quarter of a century ago.

In that time a lot has changed for the quintet supergroup, not least the diagnosis of drummer Tim Barnes with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It was this that inspired his colleagues – Ken ‘Bundy K.’ Brown (Tortoise / Directions in Music), Curtis Harvey (Rex), Chris Brokaw (Come), and Doug McCombs (Tortoise / Eleventh Dream Day);– to get on with finishing and recording III, a task with which they were occupied from 2016 to 2023.

What’s the music like?

The press release gets it right, describing the ability of III to “carry forward the group’s signature intimacy and space while embodying the spirit of community that has always defined their work”. These different elements bring a natural push-pull throughout the album.

This is the shortest of the band’s three albums, and the quietest too – but if experienced in the right environment, III is still able to cast a spell.

An early blast of sound and distortion from Bray sets up Weightless, a shimmering tale of woozy guitars, subtle drumming and a musical structure like a densely packed hedge, through which can be glimpsed an active bass line, thoughtfully realised percussion and guitars blowing in the musical breeze.

Thirteen is in the wide open air, building up a head of steam with guitars and percussion on full, but then unexpectedly cutting to nothing more than a flickering candle, sustained by treble guitars and keyboard, which gradually subsides to silence.

October, meanwhile, is an enchanting study in long form, gradually spinning longer, arching melodic figures, before Kabul steps forward with a confidently picked guitar figure and a stronger rhythmic profile, momentum gathering through to the end.

Does it all work?

It does, and III is a rewarding listen, but its relatively short duration means the spell isn’t entirely cast.

Is it recommended?

In spite of the above, yes. III is often a sonic treat, its studies in sound and colour creating pictures that are consistently engaging.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,787 – Tuesday 3 February 2026