Tag Archives: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

In concert – Alina Ibragimova, CBSO / Dinis Sousa: Sibelius, Dvořák & Arvo Pärt

Posted on by
Reply

Alina Ibragimova (violin, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Dinis Sousa (below)

Pärt Our Garden (1959, rev. 2003)
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor Op.47 (1903-04, rev. 1905)
Dvořák Symphony no.8 in G major Op.88/B163 (1889)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 3 April 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Alina Ibragimova (c) Joss McKinley; Dinis Sousa (c)

In what was an auspicious first appearance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dinis Sousa presided over an appealing programme that featured repertoire staples by Sibelius and Dvořák alongside welcome revival of an uncharacteristic early choral piece by Arvo Pärt.

Uncharacteristic but highly enjoyable, Our Garden seems relatively untypical of the Estonian composer even in his mid-twenties – its winning an award at a Soviet-sponsored competition in 1962 bringing plaudits at a time when Pärt’s was very much an ‘unofficial’ presence on the new-music scene. Six decades on this can be enjoyed simply for what it is – an unpretentious celebration of youthful endeavour whose unaffected setting of four not overly polemical texts is as cohesive as it is sincere. Certainly, the CBSO Youth Chorus did justice to writing whose rhythmic unison was offset with some deft harmonic twists and enhanced by the resourceful contribution of a sizable orchestra. An obvious candidate for inclusion in music quizzes, Our Garden is never less than effective on its own terms and made for an attractive curtain-raiser.

Geographical proximity aside, there was little connection between Pärt’s cantata or Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, and while a performance of the latter rarely fails to impress it rarely catches fire as it did here. Alina Ibragimova has given some memorable performances in Birmingham over recent seasons, but this account got to the heart of a piece that, for all its indebtedness to Romantic-era virtuosity, is no less original in form or content than its composer’s symphonies and tone poems of this period. Most notable were Ibragimova’s fusing of the first movement’s central cadenza with developmental impetus, her building of cumulative momentum over the course of the Adagio or a final Allegro which, though this may all but have eschewed the ‘ma non tanto’ marking, exuded a drive and panache maintained through to the scintillating close.

A first-rate accompanist, Sousa (above) brought out much of interest from the orchestral texture – not least its writing for low woodwind and horns which frequently underpins the soloist in a way that could only be Sibelius. Such attention to detail was equally evident in his performance of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony – music easy to take for granted in its warmth and affability, yet whose opening Allegro is a masterclass in formal innovation as benefitted from the incisive if never overdriven energy Sousa brought to this movement as a whole and its coda in particular.

Even finer was the Adagio, its pathos shot through with an ominous import which came to the surface at its brief if forceful climaxes and so confirmed this as music of rare eloquence. The intermezzo’s twin themes unfolded with an ideal lilt that made its boisterous pay-off the more fitting, while the finale made the most of Dvořák’s putting his trenchant folk-dance through a set of variations whose rapidly growing excitement could always be sensed even as the music subsided towards virtual stasis, from where the peroration made for a truly uproarious QED.

Those expecting Finlandia at the start of the second half (as indicated in this season’s guide) were disappointed, but Sousa did offer the second (in G) of Dvořák’s Legends as an apposite encore – its fluid interplay of poise and humour the ideal way to end this memorable concert.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about conductor Dinis Sousa, violinist Alina Ibragimova and the CBSO Youth Chorus

Published post no.2,496 – Sunday 6 April 2025

In concert – Alisa Weilerstein, CBSO / Joshua Weilerstein: Dvořák, Rachmaninoff & Still

Posted on by
Reply

Alisa Weilerstein (cello, below), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Joshua Weilerstein (above)

Still Poem for Orchestra (1944)
Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, B191 (1894)
Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 12 March 2025 (2:15pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Joshua Weilerstein (c) Beki Smith

Joshua Weilerstein is always a welcome returning artist to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, invariably with artful programmes such as this afternoon’s interplay of American music with that by European composers finding themselves in temporary or permanent exile.

The music of William Grant Still has made a tentative re-emergence over recent years, Poem for Orchestra being typical of that from his maturity in its galvanizing a late-Romantic idiom with an emotional range of almost cinematic immediacy. Weilerstein steered a secure course through a piece whose darkness-to-light trajectory mirrors that of an accompanying poem by the composer’s wife Verna Avery, in which the foreseeable end of world war might yet bring a new unity and compassion as is reflected through the enfolding euphony of its final pages.

Joshua and his sister Alisa (above) have both appeared often with the CBSO, though Dvořák’s Cello Concerto seems to have been their first Symphony Hall collaboration. Hopefully not the last, their rapport manifest as soon as the opening Allegro’s orchestral tutti has run its purposeful course. Any marginal falling-off of momentum over the latter stages of the development was more than offset by the soloist’s thrilling ascent into the reprise of the easeful second theme, with the coda’s treacherous passagework assuredly negotiated prior to an affirmative ending.

The ensuing Adagio is the work’s emotional heard in all respects, but these siblings rightly refrained from milking the pathos of its ruminative main theme at all times, so throwing the drama of the central episodes then especially the confiding intimacy at its close into greater relief. Lunched directly, the Finale exuded an impetus as sustained this movement through to its extended coda which, more than usually, seemed to warrant a raptly inward outcome – though there was nothing contrived about the heady arrival of those exhilarating final bars.

Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances is hardly a stranger to concert programmes these days, the CBSO having given several memorable accounts in recent seasons. That by Weilerstein was certainly among them, above all with an opening dance whose trenchant outer sections elided perfectly into then out of the central span characterized by Kyle Horch’s soulful alto saxophone. Nor did the Tempo di valse disappoint in its mingled stealth and malevolence, even if the closing pages perhaps dispersed their ominous aura just a little too temperately.

Much the most difficult movement to hold together, the final dance left a potent impression. Its outer sections never rushed and superbly articulated, Weilerstein made the most of that spellbinding transition into a central section where (uniquely with this composer) harmony or texture predominate over melody in defining this music’s expressive persona. From here he ratcheted up tension heading to a seismic confrontation of competing plainchants, then a denouement almost choreographed in its stillness as that final tam-tam echoed into silence.

Directing without a score, this is definitely a work with which Weilerstein feels an especial identity, and the CBSO was unstinting in its collective response. One can only look forward to further concerts between this orchestra and conductor, and hopefully in the coming season.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about conductor Joshua Weilerstein, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and composer William Grant Still

Published post no.2,472 – Thursday 13 March 2025

In concert – Hyeyoon Park, CBSO / Alexander Shelley: Gershwin, Florence Price, Ravel & Stravinsky

Posted on by
Reply

Hyeyoon Park (violin, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Shelley (below)

Gershwin An American in Paris (1928)
Price Violin Concerto no.2 in D minor (1952)
Price arr. Farrington Adoration (1951)
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, orch. 1919)
Stravinsky The Firebird – suite (1910, arr. 1919)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 20 February 2025 (2:15pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Although he holds major posts in Canada and Naples and has a longstanding association with the Royal Philharmonic, Alexander Shelley seems not previously to have conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and this afternoon’s concert made one hope he will return soon.

An American in Paris was a tricky piece with which to open proceedings, but here succeeded well on its own terms. Somewhere between tone poem and symphonic rhapsody, Gershwin’s evocation of a compatriot (maybe himself?) not a little lost in the French capital was treated to a bracingly impulsive and most often perceptive reading. A slightly start-stop feel in those earlier stages ceased well before Jason Lewis’s eloquent though not unduly inflected take on its indelible trumpet melody, with the closing stages afforded a tangible sense of resolution.

Much interest has centred over this past decade on the music of Florence Price – the Chicago-based composer and pianist, much of whose output was thought lost prior to the rediscovery of a substantial cache of manuscripts in 2009. One of which was her Second Violin Concerto, among her last works and whose 15-minute single movement evinces a focus and continuity often lacking in her earlier symphonic pieces (not least a Piano Concerto which Birmingham heard a couple of seasons ago). Its rich-textured orchestration (but why four percussionists?) is an ideal backdrop for the soloist to elaborate its series of episodes commanding, ruminative then impetuous, and Hyeyoon Park made the most of her time in the spotlight for an account that presented this always enjoyable while ultimately unmemorable work to best advantage.

The concerto being short measure, Park continued with an ideal encore. Written for solo organ, Price’s Adoration was given in Iain Farrington’s arrangement that brought out its elegance and warmth, if also an unlikely resemblance to Albert Fitz’s ballad The Honeysuckle and the Bee.

After the interval, music by composers from whom Gershwin had sought composition lessons when in Paris. Orchestral forces duly scaled down, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin was at its best in a deftly propelled Forlane, the alternation of verses with refrains never outstaying its welcome, then a Menuet whose winsome poise – and delectable oboe playing from Hyun Jung Song – emphasized the ominous tone of its central section. The Prélude was a little too skittish, while a capering Rigaudon was spoiled by an excessive ritenuto on its final phrase.

Interesting how the 1919 suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird has regained a popularity it long enjoyed before renditions of the complete ballet became the norm. Drawing palpable mystery from its ‘Introduction’, Shelley (above) secured a dextrous response in Dance of the Firebird then an alluring response from the woodwind in Khovorod of the Princesses. Contrast again with the Infernal Dance of King Kashchei, even if its later stages lacked a measure of adrenalin, then the Berceuse had a soulful contribution by Nikolaj Henriques and fastidiously shaded strings. Hardly less involving was the crescendo into the Finale, started by Zoe Tweed’s poetic horn solo and culminating in a peroration with no lack of spectacle. It made an imposing end to this varied and cohesive concert, one that confirmed Shelley as a conductor with whom to reckon.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about violinist Hyeyoon Park, and conductor Alexander Shelley, or for more on composer Florence Price

Published post no.2,453 – Saturday 22 February 2025

In concert – Isabelle Faust, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Akio Yashiro: Symphony, Shostakovich: Violin Concerto no.2 & Bartók Dance Suite

Posted on by
Reply

Isabelle Faust (violin, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada (below)

Bartók Dance Suite BB86a (1923)
Shostakovich Violin Concerto no.2 in C sharp minor Op.129 (1967)
Yashiro Symphony for Large Orchestra (1958) [UK Premiere]

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 5 February 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Isabelle Faust (c) Felix Broede

It may not have been a popular programme, but tonight’s concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra drew a pretty decent attendance in music clearly to the liking of music director Kazuki Yamada, who duly gave of his best for what proved a memorable evening.

Often seen as a breakthrough work in terms of its fusing indigenous musical expression with Western formal conceits, Bartók’s Dance Suite makes an ideal concert-opener. At its best in the rhythmic propulsion or harmonic astringency of the second and third dances, the present account felt a touch inhibited elsewhere; Yamada making overmuch of rhetorical pauses that should motivate rather than impede ongoing momentum. Not that this precluded a forthright response from the CBSO, pianist James Keefe making the most of his time in the spotlight.

Although not now the rarity it once was, Shostakovich’s Second Violin Concerto will always lag behind its predecessor as to performance. Coming near the outset of its composer’s final decade, its inwardness and austerity belie its technical difficulties – though these latter were rarely an issue for Isabelle Faust, who kept the initial Moderato on a tight if never inflexible rein so its demonstrative outbursts and speculative asides were more than usually integrated. Even finer was the central Lento, muted anguish finding potent contrast with plangent solo passages, and a closing contribution from horn player Elspeth Dutch of subdued pathos. Nor was the final Allegro an anti-climax, Faust drawn into engaging confrontation with timpani and tom-tom then heading to a denouement with more than a touch of desperation in its hilarity.

Inquiring listeners may have encountered a recording in Naxos’s Japanese Classics series of a Symphony by Akio Yashiro (1929-76). One of the first group of Japanese composers to study in Europe after the Second World War, his limited yet vital output witnesses a determined and distinctive attempt to fuse certain native elements with the more radical aspects of timbre and texture stemming from the West. Messiaen (with whom he studied) is audible in the fastidious harmonies of this work’s Lento that, building from pensive melodies on flute and cor anglais into a threnody of real emotional power, is its undoubted highlight. Otherwise, the music feels more akin to that of André Jolivet (whose three symphonies deserve revival) in its abundant orchestral colour and predilection for rhythmic ostinatos that galvanize the musical argument.

Such is evident in the implacable unfolding of a Prelude whose motivic ideas secure a more purposeful accord in the ensuing Scherzo, while the finale draws upon the slow movement’s intensity as it expands over successive waves of activity to an impetuous Allegro of no mean velocity prior to a seismic, even brutal peroration. Whatever its intermittent lack of subtlety and cohesion, Yashiro’s Symphony remains an imposing musical edifice such as makes one regret that the composer never managed to pen its successor during his subsequent 18 years.

It certainly found the CBSO at its collective best, so making one hope that Yamada (above) might yet schedule pieces by such as Toshiro Mayuzumi or Sadao Bekku. His next concert has a rather more familiar symphony by Tchaikovsky in the orchestra’s annual Benevolent Fund Concert.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about violinist Isabelle Faust and the CBSO chief conductor Kazuki Yamada, and also the composer Akio Yashiro’s symphony

Published post no.2,438 – Friday 7 February 2025

In concert – CBSO Winds / Nicholas Daniel: Anna Clyne ‘Overflow’ & Mozart ‘Gran Partita’

Posted on by
Reply

CBSO Winds / Nicholas Daniel (oboe, above)

Clyne Overflow (2020)
Mozart Serenade no.10 in B flat major K361 ‘Gran Partita’ (1781)

Town Hall, Birmingham
Sunday 26 January 2025 (3pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

An interesting and worthwhile strand in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s current season is the series of Sunday afternoon programmes focussing on each of the orchestra’s sections. Last November brought the strings for a perceptive account of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, as arranged by Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the present recital duly centred upon the woodwind in what was dominated – not unreasonably so – by a performance of Mozart’s epic Gran Partita.

Still the finest and probably longest work ever composed for wind ensemble, it also remains the canniest example of ‘functional’ music raised to a level such as transcends its immediate purpose. Not the least of its virtues is the way in which its orchestration – comprising pairs of oboes, clarinets, basset horns and bassoons along with four horns and double-bass – suggests timbral and textural possibilities as profound as they are far-reaching. Put another way, this is ‘Harmoniemusik’ which makes of a localized and even provincial genre something universal.

Such a quality was rarely less than present in this performance. Right from its trenchant yet never portentous introduction, the opening Allegro found an enticing balance between poise and impulsiveness matched by that between tutti and ensemble passages. The first Menuetto was notable for the winsome elegance of its second trio, then the ensuing Adagio yielded no mean pathos without risk of sentimentality at a flowing tempo abetted by that effortlessness of dialogue which proved a hallmark of this movement as of the performance taken overall.

Although less overtly characterful than its predecessor, the second Menuetto did not lack for personality and while the Romanze feels the least essential part of the overall conception, it still made for a pertinent entrée into the Tema con variazioni. This longest and most varied movement also encapsulates the work overall in its expressive contrasts which were to the fore here – the last variation preparing unerringly for a final Allegro whose relative brevity was belied by a drive, even forcefulness that propelled the whole work to its decisive close.

It was a testament to the excellence of these musicians that one never suspected the absence of any guiding hand, for all that guest first oboist Nicholas Daniel could be seen encouraging the players whenever his part permitted. Neither was there any sense of the latter being other than integral to the overall ensemble, such was the underlying felicity and finesse with which it conveyed the depths of what must surely rank among its composer’s greatest achievements. Not a bad way, moreover, for the CBSO’s woodwind to savour its occasion ‘in the spotlight’.

The programme had commenced just over an hour earlier with Overflow, a short but eventful piece where Anna Clyne draws inspiration from Emily Dickinson’s poetry (and, in turn, that by Jelaluddin Rumi) in music which treads an audibly viable balance between the ruminative and capricious. It made an understated showcase for the CBSO woodwind, whose brass and percussion colleagues are heard in the next of these recitals when Alpesh Chauhan directs a varied programme climaxing in Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by the late Elgar Howarth.

List of players: Marie-Christine Zupancic and Veronika Klirova (flutes), Nicholas Daniel and Emmet Byrne (oboes), Oliver Janes and Joanna Paton (clarinets), Anthony Pike and Steve Morris (basset horns), Nikolaj Henriques and Tony Liu (bassoons), Elspeth Dutch and Neil Shewan (horns), Julian Atkinson (double bass)

For details on the upcoming CBSO Brass & Percussion concert, heard to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names for more on Nicholas Daniel and composer Anna Clyne

Published post no.2,426 – Wednesday 29 January 2025