Tag Archives: Symphony Hall

In concert – Inmo Yang, CBSO / Dima Slobodeniouk: Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky & Martinů

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Inmo Yang (violin), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Dima Slobodeniouk (above)

Martinů Memorial to Lidice H296 (1943)
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (1878)
Prokofiev Symphony no.6 in E flat minor Op.111 (1945-47)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 18 June 2026 2:15pm

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Dima Slobodeniouk (c) Marco Borggreve

If not quite an all-Russian sequence or, indeed, one centred on the Second World War, this was still a cohesive and satisfying programme that played to the collective strengths of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra along with this afternoon’s conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

Just over eight decades since a first hearing in Prague (83 years following its premiere in New York), Memorial to Lidice has lost little of its fervency and pathos – qualities often present in the music of Martinů’s maturity yet seldom so graphically as here. The CBSO’s playing duly ensured a performance of sustained eloquence, with Slobodeniouk lightening the mood in its central section so that the return of the opening music – with its allusions to the St Wenceslas Chorale and the motto of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – left a tangibly cathartic impression.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto received a far less cordial reception at its premiere in Vienna, but soon afterwards established a place in the repertoire as has never been challenged. Early audience may have found its first movement protracted, but Immo Yang ensured a seamless follow-though with due characterization of its subtly contrasted main themes. Imaginatively articulated, the cadenza was pointedly developmental as to make the wistful reappearance of the first theme the more affecting. Nor was there any lack of emotional depth in the ensuing Canzonetta – its musing uncertainty the counterweight to a finale which, after its (rightly) jarring introduction, found the right balance between impetuosity and plaintiveness on route to a coda no less uproarious for all its knife-edge coordination between soloist and orchestra.

Acclaimed at its Leningrad premiere, Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony was a victim of political intrigues such as hampered any wider dissemination (its first hearing in Birmingham came as late as 1980) or recognition as its composer’s finest and most finely achieved such piece. Slobodeniouk undoubtedly had its measure, not least that opening Allegro moderato whose diverse and even disparate ideas – which might be described as speculative, mesmeric then desperate – melded with an assured sense of where this disquieting movement was headed. In particular, the lengthy development proceeded with truly remorseless intensity toward a pulverizing climax – one whose bitter after-tones persisted through a summary reprise then on to a conclusion whose embrace of the major key could hardly have felt less affirmative.

If this movement finds Prokofiev at his most questing, then the Largo finds him at his most empathetic such as its searing introductory bars then heartfelt main theme are drawn into a powerfully focussed design leaving no doubt as to its composer’s awareness of the ‘human cost’ or this conductor’s conveying of what was at stake. Not that the final Vivace was at all pre-empted, the forced jocularity of its main theme offset by ambivalent episodes prior to a coda whose teetering on catastrophe seemed hardly allayed by those fateful closing gestures.

Taken as a whole, this proved an impressive conceived and realized performance that, having occurred ‘‘many years since my last visit’’ (to quote the conductor), was such as to make one hope that Slobodeniouk’s next appearance with this orchestra might not be so long in coming.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2026/27 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the name to read more on conductor Dima Slobodeniouk and violinist Inmo Yang

Published post no.2,925 – Monday 22 June 2026

In concert – CBSO / Ilan Volkov: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring & Stokowski transcriptions

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City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Ilan Volkov (above)

Frescobaldi arr Stokowski Gagliarda Seconda (1627/1934)
Purcell arr Stokowski Dido’s Lament (1689/1949)
Debussy arr Stokowski The Sunken Cathedral (1910/1930)
Mussorgsky arr Stokowski Boris Godunov: Coronation Scene (1874/1936)
J.S. Bach arr Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565 (c1708/1927)
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1911-13)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 3 June 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture (c) Hannah Blake-Fathers

He might not officially become Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra until next season, but Ilan Volkov – a valued collaborator over the past two decades – gave notice of his intentions with this enterprising programme of Stokowski and Stravinsky.

Stokowski, that is, in his role as an arranger often interventionist, frequently provocative while always compelling. The first four of these pieces played without break – the hieratic poise of Frescobaldi’s Gagliarda Seconda, with its layering of wind and strings, leading into Purcell’s Dido’s Lament with its soulful interplay of solo and massed strings. This sequence moved up a gear with The Sunken Cathedral, here becoming the most evocative of Debussy’s Préludes as its washes of percussion prepared for an apparition of sonorous splendour before returning to the murky depths. Volkov will hopefully schedule Stokowski’s entire Symphonic Synthesis from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov at a future concert though, for now, the Coronation Scene offered a tantalizing taster as its ringing ostinato patterns built toward a cinematic apotheosis.

It made sense to round off this sequence with Toccata and Fugue, most characteristic of the conductor’s numerous Bach reworkings and the most archetypal of all his arrangements. Its sonic opulence is balanced by an analytical acuity with the orchestral sections stratified so to bring out the motivic intricacy of its Toccata as well as the mounting impetus of its Fugue on the way to a glowering peroration. The CBSO gave its collective all in a piece that, whether or not this is actually by Bach, could not be an arrangement by anyone other than Stokowski.

Stokowski directed the American premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in Philadelphia some 104 years ago and the questing zeal heard in his 1930 recording seemed no less evident in Volkov’s performance – assuredly no powerhouse conception and all the more impressive because of it. With bassoonist Nikolaj Henriques given his head in its plangent Introduction, the first part proceeded stealthily and its myriad shades of detail or expressive nuance given focus through the music’s unfolding at a consistent while unbroken pulse. Such as the innate violence in Ritual of Abduction and inexorable Ritual of the Rival Tribes were drawn into an indivisible whole whose accruing tension found release in a seismic Dance of the Earth.

If the second part emerged more episodically, this was owing more to its actual content than to any interpretative failing. Certainly the diaphanous haze of its Introduction segued with due seamlessness into Mystic Circles of the Young Girls of ominous import. Nor was there any wanton pictorialism in Ritual Action of the Ancestors, with the trenchancy at the start of the Sacrificial Dance a telling foil to the unbridled impetus which followed. Others may have drawn a purely visceral frenzy from this music, but relatively few can have channelled such impetus through to so conclusive and (strange as this sounds) satisfying a final gesture.

Impressive music-making, then, that augurs well for Volkov’s three concerts with the CBSO next season. Hopefully there will also be an opportunity for this conductor to expand on his extensive discography, as part of what should prove an arresting and productive relationship.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the name to read more on conductor Ilan Volkov, while you can watch him in action in a number of videos below:

Jorge E Lopez | Symphony No.4

Ilan Volkov conducts works by Schreker and Strauss – YouTube

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 – Brussels Philharmonic & Ilan Volkov – HD

Published post no.2,908 – Friday 5 June 2026

In concert – Benjamin Grosvenor, CBSO / Jac van Steen: Stravinsky, Hindemith, Ravel & Honegger

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Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Jac van Steen

Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass Op.50 (1930)
Ravel Piano Concerto in G major (1929-31)
Honegger Pacific 231 (1923)
Stravinsky Petruska (1911, rev. 1947)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 5 May 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture (c) Jonathan Ferro

Tonight’s concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra saw the welcome return of Jac van Steen in a programme centred on several of the composers who contributed works to the Boston’s Symphony’s 50th season and what was an auspicious time for Western music.

Concert Music for strings and brass found Hindemith at an early peak of success abroad, as is evident from the ease with which he variously juxtaposes and combines these distinct groups. Formally the work is no less innovative – its initial part eliding first and slow movements as it pivots between densely orchestral or translucently chamber textures on the way towards a cumulatively sustained threnody; whereas its successor elides scherzo and finale as it veers between incisively fugal or plaintively homophonic textures prior to its resolute apotheosis. Music which has a notable advocate in Steen, ensuring this music never sounded congested or rhythmically inflexible while securing an impressive response from the CBSO musicians.

Although the Hindemith has latterly regained prominence, Ravel’s Piano Concerto has only gained further hearings across time. No mean exponent, Benjamin Grosvenor was not at his best in this account – the initial Allegramente finding rapport between soloist and orchestra less than unanimous, with its elements of jazz sounding a touch forced. The central Adagio opened with its solo passage lacking subtlety, though the build-up towards its close brought a frisson of anticipation, while the final Presto had a fluency and energy even more evident in that from Prokofiev’s Seventh Piano Sonata – Grosvenor on something like his best form.

A pity that no-one ever revives the [First] Symphony which Honegger wrote for that Boston anniversary, but his Pacific 231 has retained something of its early notoriety and Steen made the most of its implacable build-up from stasis, via a remorselessly accruing velocity then on to its merciless apotheosis. Certain members of the audience might first have encountered it in Louis Frémaux’s recording with this orchestra from 1973; the present performance being no less attentive to the music’s essentially human rendering of a technological phenomenon.

The scene was duly set for Stravinsky’s Petrushka, heard in its 1947 orchestration but with no lack of finesse on Steen’s part such as opened-out the music’s textures yet without diluting its emotional immediacy. There was no lack of evocation in the opening tableau’s depiction of St. Petersburg’s Shrove-Tide Fair, nor with that tantalizing passage when the anti-hero comes to life before a spirited Russian Dance. The central tableaux, focussing on Petrushka then the Moor in their respective cells, found an unerring balance between the music’s whimsical and its all-too-human emotions; heading into the Shrove-Tide Fair at Evening with its set-pieces vividly characterized. Just why Steen dispensed with the final minutes, depicting Petrushka’s death then his ‘resurrection’, is anyone’s guess: the CBSO trumpets were doubtless up for it.

An impressive concert, even so, not least as means for launching the CBSO’s 2026/27 season – details of which can be found elsewhere on Arcana.fm as well as on the orchestra’s website. Given the fitful funding at local and national levels, such ambition can only be commended.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on soloist Benjamin Grosvenor and conductor Jac van Steen

Published post no.2,883 – Sunday 9 May 2026

In concert – Sophie Bevan, Gareth Brynmor John, CBSO Chorus & Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth: Brahms: A German Requiem

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Sophie Bevan (soprano), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone), CBSO Chorus (chorus-master, David Young), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth

Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary Z860 (1695)
Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem Op.45 (1865-68)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 23 April 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Having begun five years ago in the (relative) aftermath of the pandemic, ‘CBSO Remembers’ has become a means of recalling those associated in some way with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and opportunity to schedule appropriate works with the CBSO Chorus.

This evening saw A German Requiem, Brahms’ largest and most-encompassing piece whose emotional impact is out of all proportion to its modest forces – not least compared with those settings of the Latin text by Berlioz or Verdi. Compiling his own text from the German Bible, Brahms drew attention not only to its linguistic basis but also the essentially humanist nature of its content. A work whose concern lies less with those departed than with those still living thereby conveys a message which, if not spiritually affirmative, is none the less one of hope.

The present account was nothing if not focussed on this latter quality, right from the outset of the initial ‘Blessed are they that mourn’ with its deft eliding between the ruminative and the aspiring. There was inexorable power to the fatalistic tread and fateful climaxes of ‘For all flesh is as grass’, with no lack of wistfulness in its central interlude then of joyousness in its unlikely if resolute continuation. To those earlier stages of ‘Lord, teach me’, as of ‘For here we have no abiding place’, Gareth Brynmor John conveyed earnest supplication with just a hint of strain; the ensuing fugues – energetic then defiant – retaining the requisite buoyancy thanks to a vividly incisive response by the CBSO Chorus and Ryan Wigglesworth’s astute marshalling of orchestral textures whose outward sombreness yielded a burnished richness.

In between these most dramatic movements, ‘How lovely are thy dwelling places’ unfolded as an oasis of unaffected calm, then ‘You now have sorrow’ brought a radiant response from Sophie Bevan in what was an afterthought for the work overall as well as its most personal, even confessional statement. It remained for ‘Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord’ to place the foregoing triumph in relief as it gradually retraced its musical steps toward an end of rapt acceptance; one whose understated depth characterized this performance as a whole.

At some 70 minutes the Brahms does not make a full programme on its own terms, so it was an inspired decision to preface this with Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary. Barely 15 minutes as to duration, its hieratic opening March is followed by a Canzona whose elliptical harmonies look forward almost 250 years to Tippett and which alternates with the setting of ‘Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts’ whose three stages move from stark anguish towards searching resignation: understandable, while eternally regrettable, this music should have been heard at its composer’s own funeral eight months later. A pity, too, on this occasion that the Purcell could not have elided seamlessly into the Brahms though, given the logistics when incorporating offstage brass into the onstage orchestra, this was most likely unfeasible.

More importantly, it anticipated the main work with absolute sureness. One looks forward to Wigglesworth’s future appearances with the CBSO which, next Wednesday, tackles Brahms’ Violin Concerto and then Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony alongside Stanislav Kochanovsky.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on soloists Sophie Bevan and Gareth Brynmor John, conductor Ryan Wigglesworth and the CBSO Chorus

Published post no.2,869 – Sunday 26 April 2026

In concert – Fleur Barron, CBSO / Carlo Rizzi: Puccini in Rome

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Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Carlo Rizzi

Puccini arr. Rizzi Tosca – Symphonic Suite (1900, arr. 2020)
Respighi Il Tramonto (1917-18)
Puccini arr. Rizzi Madama Butterfly – Symphonic Suite (1904, arr. 2020)
Respighi Pini di Roma (1923-4)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 16 April 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo of Fleur Barron by Victoria Cadisch

Carlo Rizzi has long been a familiar presence in Birmingham – though as music director (for 13 years) at Welsh National Opera rather than conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom his rapport was nevertheless undoubted as tonight’s concert confirmed.

The theatrical essence of Puccini’s operas inevitably detracts from their orchestral mastery, but there is no reason why their music cannot be adapted for the concert hall – as Rizzi duly demonstrated with these two ‘symphonic suites’ created during the COVID lockdown. The incentive had come earlier when conducting the suite from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, and anyone familiar with that rather crassly assembled concoction will surely concur that Rizzi has performed a much greater service for two of the Italian composer’s most famous operas.

As regards Tosca, its unwavering concentration makes it difficult to extract purely orchestral passages of any length – thereby vindicating making Rizzi’s decision to adapt this music as   it stands and not ‘instrumentalize’ the vocal lines. Centred on the ill-fated lovers Tosca and Cavaradossi, his suite pivots between high emotion and fraught pathos while still managing to encompass the extent of the drama throughout the two hours of its unfolding. Put another way, those unfamiliar with this opera would be left in little doubt as to its dramatic potency.

If the overtly discursive quality of Madam Butterfly makes it less amenable for being distilled in this way, its score offers an abundance of orchestral finesse and local colour of which Rizzi has made the most. Here the emphasis comes even more on the eponymous heroine, her main set-pieces diminished only incrementally when shorn of their vocal component. Nor does this suite overlook the searing cruelty of the denouement, achieved here through a shattering burst of orchestral violence which felt scarcely less visceral than in operas from Janáček and Berg.

In between these high-octane encapsulations, a modicum of restraint (though hardly serenity) was conveyed by The Sunset. When setting Shelley’s typically over-wrought poem from 1816, Respighi was evidently guided by the disjunctive if not necessarily jarring transition between its rapt initial stages and its anguished continuation towards an ending of fatalistic repose. Its richly enveloping string-writing was fastidiously rendered – an apposite context for Canadian mezzo Fleur Barron (above) to project vocal writing no less suffused with radiant emotional warmth.

Respighi in more familiar guise concluded this programme. His Pines of Rome was accorded an insightful reading – whether in the raucous animation of those ‘of the Villa Borghese’, the sombre opulence of those ‘near a Catacomb’, the enfolding ecstasy of those ‘at the Janiculum’ (pre-recorded nightingale ascending headily through the expanse of Symphony Hall) then the surging majesty of those ‘of the Appian Way’, with its overwhelmingly cinematic peroration. Music expressly intended to bring the house down, which was certainly true on this occasion.

It set the seal on an imaginatively programmed and superbly played concert, making one hope that Rizzi will soon be returning. Next week, however, brings music of a very different nature when Ryan Wigglesworth takes the podium in commemorative music by Purcell and Brahms.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on conductor Carlo Rizzi and mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron

Published post no.2,863 – Monday 20 April 2026