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Birmingham Choral Union: Handel Messiah
Sat 11 Apr 2009 Town Hall
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Orchestra of the Swan: The English Romantic
Wed 15 Apr 2009 Town Hall
£8.50, £12.50, £16.50, £19.50 Choir benches £6.50 60 plus £7.50, £11.50, £15, £17.50 Orchestra of the Swan is a Town Hall Associate Artist. Please note that the choir area is bench seating, the benches are behind the stage area, and there is limited legroom and no back support. The view of the stage from this area is limited. Book 3 or more OOTS concerts in one transaction and receive a 10% reduction. Book all 6 in transaction and receive a 20% reduction. Please call the Box Office direct on 0121 780 3333 to take advantage of these offer
*Mark Bebbington* Piano
*Vaughan Williams* The Wasps *John Ireland* Piano concerto No 1 *Brahms* Symphony No 2
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Purcell's Dido & Aeneas
Sat 18 Apr 2009 Town Hall
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is an emotionally charged drama of love, death, fate and the supernatural. Tonight’s fully-staged performance celebrates the 350th anniversary of Purcell’s birth in 1659. It reveals the hopeless love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, like you’ve never heard it before: a stunning reconstruction of the 1700 Lincoln’s Inn Theatre revival of the opera, which reconstructs additional scenes and longlost music and is accompanied by a large and colourful orchestra of period instruments. *BBC music magazine’s editor, Oliver Condy, explains why he has recommended tonight’s concert:* _"Before Elgar came along, Purcell was seen as England’s greatest composer. For many he still is - and Dido and Aeneas is his masterwork. Bringing it to sparkling life is the heady combination of one of the great authentic performance ensembles around today, a legendary director and some a brilliant cast of singers.”_ "BBC Music Magazine":http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com *6.15pm pre-concert talk* Tickets £5-£30
*New London Consort* *Philip Pickett* conductor *Jonathan Miller* director *Sue Lefton* choreography, movement *Eskandar* costumes *Julia Gooding* _Dido_ *Michael George* _Aeneas_ *Joanne Lunn* _Belinda_
*Purcell* Dido and Aeneas (1700) 100’
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Family Concert: Carnival of the Animals
Sun 19 Apr 2009 Symphony Hall
Gallop, hop or slither your way to Symphony Hall, as today’s concert is full of music inspired by the animal kingdom. Join the CBSO as it travels through jungles, oceans, farmyards and forests, including Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals with two- and four-legged friends from cuckoos to kangaroos, and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Roll up, roll up, and hear the elephants trumpet and roar in Stravinsky’s Circus Polka, but you had better beware of Rossini’s Thieving Magpie and Elgar’s Wild Bears! Why not come dressed up as your favourite animal? FREE CREATIVE WORKSHOPS AND MUSIC in the foyers from 1.30pm
Michael Seal - conductor Tommy Pearson - presenter City of Birmingham Young Voices City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
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A Night At The Theatre With Asia
Tue 21 Apr 2009 Town Hall
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Inspired by Bach
Wed 22 Apr 2009 Symphony Hall
More composers have been inspired by Bach than by any other composer. Tonight Andris Nelsons takes us to Brahms’ final symphony with its finale based on music from a Bach cantata by way of Berg’s highly expressive violin concerto which quotes a Bach chorale at its emotional climax and the tiny trumpet concerto in which Arvo Pärt incorporates the great man’s name. Elgar’s sumptuous arrangement of some genuine Bach sets the evening off in splendid style. 6.15pm- Pre Concert Talk- Inspired by Bach Stephen Johnson, presenter of BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music, explores the hidden connections behind tonight’s programme.
Andris Nelsons - conductor Isabelle van Keulen - violin Jonathan Holland - trumpet City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Bach (orch. Elgar): Fantasia and Fugue in C minor 8’ Berg: Violin Concerto 25’ Pärt: Concerto Piccolo on B-A-C-H 8’ Brahms: Symphony No. 4 42’
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Centre Stage
Thu 23 Apr 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre
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Celebrity Recital: Christian Tetzlaff & Lars Vogt
Fri 24 Apr 2009 Town Hall
This partnership between two of today’s finest soloists is one of the great musical success stories of recent years. Each is a formidable artist in his own right, and as a duo they combine superb virtuosity and engaging musicianship. They are playing three of the most popular sonatas for violin and piano: a musical journey from the grave beauty of Bach’s F minor Sonata to the full-blooded romantic sweep of Cesar Franck, via the serenity of the much-loved a major Sonata by Brahms. Tickets £5-£20
*Christian Tetzlaff* violin *Lars Vogt* piano
*Bach* Sonata in F minor, BWV 1018 18’ *Brahms* Sonata in A major, Op 100 20’ *Franck* Sonata in A major 30’
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Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle City of Birmingham Choir
Sat 25 Apr 2009 Town Hall
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Sunday Morning Coffee Concert -Hendrickje Van Kerckhove & Inge Spinette
Sun 26 Apr 2009 Town Hall
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BCMG Families@4
Sun 26 Apr 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre
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BCMG The Series 2008/09
Sun 26 Apr 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre
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IgorFest: Orpheus
Thu 30 Apr 2009 Symphony Hall
We enter the final leg of our ground-breaking four-year Stravinsky cycle with a programme featuring two largescale orchestral works: the 1947 ballet Orpheus and the energetic, neo-classical Symphony in C. These frame a pair of religious works: what he called his ‘pocket requiem’, Requiem Canticles, and his exuberant arrangement of the music of J. S. Bach in Vom Himmel Hoch. Two of his many tributes to great contemporaries - in this case the writers T. S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley complete the programme. 6.15pm- Pre Concert Talk- The three final instalments of the CBSO’s epic journey through the complete works of Stravinsky - introduced by BBC Radio 3’s Anthony Burton
Jac van Steen - conductor CBSO Ex Cathedra
Stravinsky: Orpheus 31’ Stravinsky: Introitus - T. S. Eliot in memoriam 4’ Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles 15’ Stravinsky: Chorale Variations on ‘Vom Himmel Hoch’ 11’ Stravinsky: Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam 5’ Stravinsky: Symphony in C 28’
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Centre Stage Rainer Gibbons (oboe) and the Montpellier String Trio
Fri 1 May 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre
Rainer Gibbons (oboe) and the Montpellier String Trio Mozart: Oboe Quartet J. C. Bach: Oboe Quartet Beethoven: Serenade in D, Op. 8
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IgorFest: Biblical Works
Wed 6 May 2009 Symphony Hall
Though he was never especially strict in his Church attendance or attitudes, religion played an increasingly important part in Stravinsky’s output, and his later works based on Biblical texts are among his most profound and original. Tonight Sakari Oramo offers up four varied pieces based on Old Testament stories, culminating in Threni, Stravinsky’s extraordinary setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. There is also a New Testament counterpart in A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk - Biblical Works
Sakari Oramo - conductor Roderick Williams -baritone
Stravinsky: Babel 5’ Stravinsky: Abraham and Isaac 10’ Stravinsky: The Flood 24’ Stravinsky: A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer 15’ Stravinsky: Threni 30’
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Dvorák’s New World Symphony
Fri 8 May 2009 Symphony Hall
Libor Pešek is one of a long line of Czech conductors who have the music of Dvorák firmly in their blood. He visits Symphony Hall with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in two of Dvorák’s best-loved works: the Cello Concerto, packed with superb melodies that tug at the heart-strings, and the evocative New World Symphony, one of the most enduringly popular of all symphonies. *Classic FM’s Anne-Marie Minhall says of tonight’s recommended concert:* _I interviewed the cellist Steven Isserlis for The Guest List on Classic FM before he was due to give a series of performances of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and he had this insight into the work: “I think recordings distort it because actually although the cello is of course the most important instrument, it's really like a big symphony in that there are so many important parts in the orchestra as well. The solo flute part is very, very important, (as is) the solo clarinet part, and there's lots of duets and there's lots of bits where the cello is accompanying the orchestra, so I like to think of it as chamber music on a huge scale." Tonight Nina Kotova is the soloist for the Concerto written by a love-struck and homesick Dvorak._ "Classic FM":http://www.classicfm.co.uk Tickets £5-£37.50
*Prague Symphony Orchestra* *Libor Pešek* conductor *Nina Kotova* cello
*Dvorák* Prague Waltzes 9’ *Dvorák* Cello Concerto 40’ *Dvorák* Symphony No 9, From the New World 40’
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IgorFest: The Fireworks Finale
Sat 9 May 2009 Symphony Hall
For the grand finale of our Stravinsky project, we return to the composer’s Russian roots with some musical fireworks. His 1922 comic opera Mavra - dedicated to Tchaikovsky - is a wickedly witty setting of a Pushkin tale set in a Russian village. In his glittering early Fireworks we can hear the influence of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, while his strange, visionary 1912 cantata The King of the Stars (composed at the same time as The Rite of Spring) sounds like nothing else on this earth. And there could be no other way to end this amazing journey than with the Rite - still, nearly a century after its scandalous Paris premiere, a piece which astounds with every performance. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk - The Fireworks Finale
Sakari Oramo - conductor Anita Watson - Parasha Liora Grodnikaite - The Neighbour Elizabeth Sikora - The Mother Robert Gardiner - The Hussar City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Stravinsky: Fireworks 4’ Stravinsky: Four Russian Peasant Songs 4’ Stravinsky: Mavra 27’ Stravinsky: The King of the Stars 5’ Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring 35’
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Orchestra of the Swan: Tasmin Little and Sibelius
Sun 10 May 2009 Town Hall
*Tasmin Little* Violin
*Sibelius* Rakastava *Roxanna Panufnik* Tibetan Winter Violin & Orchestra *Sibelius* The Swan of Tuonela *Sibelius* Violin concerto
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A Pastoral Symphony
Tue 12 May 2009 Symphony Hall
Like so many city dwellers then and now, Beethoven took great pleasure in escaping to the countryside, and captured these feelings in his Pastoral Symphony, premiered 200 years ago in the same concert as his fiery Fifth. Acclaimed Scottish conductor Douglas Boyd also takes us to the French countryside for a selection of Canteloube’s glorious French folk-songs, including the haunting Baïlèro, sung by one of our greatest sopranos. The imposing northern forests of Sibelius’ Tapiola offer a darker view of the natural world.
Douglas Boyd - conductor Joan Rodgers - soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sibelius: Tapiola 20’ Canteloube: Songs of the Auvergne 25’ Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) 42’
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Handel's Arianna
Wed 13 May 2009 Town Hall
Handel heaven for lovers of great singing! We present a truly starstudded international cast for Arianna, the last in the academy of ancient music’s series of Handel operas in Birmingham and a fitting celebration of the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death. Since its first recording in 1999 Arianna has emerged as a forgotten masterpiece, full of vital, colourful music. It is the perfect vehicle for the sublime voices of Angelika Kirchschlager, Alice Coote, Lisa Milne and their colleagues, and baroque opera is a wonderful experience in the intimate and beautiful surroundings of Town Hall. Tickets £5-£30 Please note - Concert performance sung in italian. There will be two intervals.
*Academy of Ancient Music* *Christopher Hogwood* conductor *Lisa Milne* _Alceste_ *Angelika Kirchschlager* _Teseo_ *Sonia Prina* _Carilda_ *Alice Coote* _Tauride_ *Antonio Abete* _Minos_
*Handel* Arianna in Creta (1733) 164’
