The CBSO brings live classical music back to Britain, plus the best of May’s classical concerts
4/5
Symphony Hall in Birmingham resounded to Saint-Saëns and Debussy – it wasn’t flawless, but it was manna from Heaven either way
20 May 2021 • 12:57pm
Edward Gardner conducts the CBSO at Birmingham s Symphony Hall
Credit: Hannah Blake
CBSO/Edward Gardner
★★★★☆
We’ve been looking forward to it for so long, and suddenly it’s here: live concerts, happening in front of us, in concert halls, instead of on wretched little screens. The joy last night at Symphony Hall in Birmingham was palpable, but nevertheless it felt a touch muted. We were all in masks, and only one in three seats were occupied. And there was a touch of stunned disbelief in the air when conductor Edward Gardner told us the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has gone more than 400 days without playing in front of an audience.
CBSO/Gardner review – heft, glitter and fizz as Birmingham orchestra return to the stage
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8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Michael Collins & Michael McHale. The clarinetist and pianist’s program includes Joseph Horovitz’s Sonatina which premièred at Wigmore Hall in 1981. Widor’s
Introduction et rondo was composed in 1898. At its première in 1935, Bax’s clarinet sonata was actually played twice; it was repeated in the program when the sheet music for a work by Lennox Berkeley was lost in the post. Each of the four
Time Pieces by Robert Muczynski highlights a characteristic of the clarinet in terms of range, technical prowess, tone color, and expressiveness. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
Verdi’s
Nabucco. Conductor: Marco Armiliato, director: Günter Krämer. With Plácido Domingo, Freddie De Tommaso, Riccardo Zanellato, Anna Pirozzi. Production from January 2021. Register for free and view here. 8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Timothy Ridout & Tom Poster. 2019 New Generation Artist Timothy Ridout joins Tom Poster from Wigmore Hall’s Associate Artists, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, to bring the world première of Kurt Schwertsik’s
Haydn lived in Eisenstadt, written especially for this concert. This will be performed between two Brahms viola sonatas which were originally written for clarinet. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Jonathan Plowright. The British pianist opens this concert with Busoni’s arrangement of Bach’s D minor
Chaconne which was performed by Busoni himself at the opening of the Hall almost 120 years ago. This is followed by the six pieces that make up Liszt’s
Consolations S172. The concert closes with Grieg’s
Holberg Suite Op. 40, originally written for piano before Grieg adapted it for string orchestra. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents
Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci. Conductor: Marco Armiliato, director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. With Eva-Maria Westbroek, Brian Jagde, Ambrogio Maestri, Zoryana Kushpler, and Isabel Signoret; Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak, Ambrogio Maestri, Andrea Giovannini, and Sergey Kaydalov. Production from November 2020. Register for free and view here.
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