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Pappano Conducts Mahler 1 Birmingham International Concert Season 2010/11
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Sat 19 Mar 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

One of Italy’s most celebrated orchestras contributes the First Symphony to Birmingham’s Mahler Cycle under the inspiring baton of its Music Director Antonio Pappano (also renowned as Music Director of the Royal Opera House). Joyous and optimistic, opening with an evocation of dawn, it closes with a roof-raising finale. And, to open the concert, there is a rarity: the orchestral Sinfonia that Verdi made from his ever-popular Aida - music that is in the very blood of these players. BBC Music magazine’s Editor, Oliver Condy, explains why he has recommended tonight’s concert: “Who better than the fiercely talented Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to tease the sunshine out of these exciting masterpieces? And who better, too, to bring the passion to Liszt’s mighty First Piano Concerto than the fiery Russian virtuoso Boris Berezovsky?” 6.15pm Pre-concert talk. Part of "The Birmingham Mahler Cycle":http://www.thsh.co.uk/the-birmingham-mahler-cycle
"*Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome*":http://www.santacecilia.it/scw/ *Antonio Pappano* _conductor_ *Boris Berezovsky* _piano_
*Verdi* _Aida_ Sinfonia 12’ *Liszt* Piano Concerto No 1 20’ *Mahler* Symphony No 1 53’ Finmeccanica is the main sponsor or Orcestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome.
CBSO Family Concert: The ...
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Sun 20 Mar 2011 3:00pm Symphony Hall

Get ready for a whistle-stop world tour guaranteed to leave your toes tapping, as the CBSO treats you to an afternoon of dance music from around the globe. We’ll be hopping across the channel for Bizet’s famous _Farandole_, touching down state-side to join in a Hoe-Down with music by Copland, and enjoying the colourful carnival atmosphere in Brazil. Let presenter Alasdair Malloy be your tour guide as he whisks you from country to country, and even treats you to a performance on his rare glass harmonica - as seen on CBeebies’ _Space Pirates_ - in the Venetian _Barcarolle_ from _Tales of Hoffmann_. FREE craft workshops and music in the foyers from 1.30pm. Why not come in fancy dress - or even national dress - from your favourite country?
*Matthew Coorey* _conductor_ *Alasdair Malloy* _presenter_ *CBSO Youth Chorus*
CBSO Years 5 & 6 Scho...
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Wed 23 Mar 2011 11:30am Symphony Hall

Who’d have thought that composers would be inspired to write music about cheeky boys and the scrapes they get into? Based on a German folk story, Richard Strauss’s action-packed tone poem _Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks_ tells the story of the many mischievous antics of Till, until his actions catch up with him and he meets a rather unfortunate end. Hear how Strauss uses the instruments of the orchestra to paint vivid pictures of our naughty hero, the people he encounters on his travels and everything that happens along the way - from upending market stalls to chasing girls! If you’re very good, you’ll also find out about bad boy Tam O’Shanter and the trouble he got into with some witches, depicted in music by Malcolm Arnold. This performance is specially devised for Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6). There is also a 1.30pm performance for Key Stages 3 & 4 (Years 7-11) - click "here":http://www.thsh.co.uk/view/cbso-schools-concerts-merry-pranks-2 for details. For information about pre-concert support packages and other opportunities for schools with the CBSO, email education@cbso.co.uk / call 0121 616 6546. These concerts are kindly supported by the Friends of the CBSO. For information, please contact Ellie Griffiths on 0121 616 6514.
*Michael Seal* _conductor_ *Tommy Pearson* _presenter_
CBSO Years 7-11 Schools C...
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Wed 23 Mar 2011 1:30pm Symphony Hall

Who’d have thought that composers would be inspired to write music about cheeky boys and the scrapes they get into? Based on a German folk story, Richard Strauss’s action-packed tone poem _Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks_ tells the story of the many mischievous antics of Till, until his actions catch up with him and he meets a rather unfortunate end. Hear how Strauss uses the instruments of the orchestra to paint vivid pictures of our naughty hero, the people he encounters on his travels and everything that happens along the way - from upending market stalls to chasing girls! If you’re very good, you’ll also find out about bad boy Tam O’Shanter and the trouble he got into with some witches, depicted in music by Malcolm Arnold. This performance is specially devised for Key Stages 3 & 4 (Years 7-11). There is also a 11.30am performance for Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6) - click "here":http://www.thsh.co.uk/view/cbso-schools-concerts-merry-pranks for details. For information about pre-concert support packages and other opportunities for schools with the CBSO, email education@cbso.co.uk / call 0121 616 6546. These concerts are kindly supported by the Friends of the CBSO. For information, please contact Ellie Griffiths on 0121 616 6514.
*Michael Seal* _conductor_ *Tommy Pearson* _presenter_
The Trumpet Shall Sound! ... Orchestra of the Swan
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Wed 23 Mar 2011 2:30pm Town Hall

A glittering performance of best loved trumpet concertos performed by the outstanding young prize-winner Huw Morgan and Orchestra of the Swan principal Hugh Davies.
*Huw Morgan* _trumpet_ *Hugh Davies* _trumpet_ *David Curtis* _conductor_
*Haydn* Symphony no 30 _Allelujah!_ *Telemann* Trumpet concerto *Jeremiah Clarke* Trumpet Voluntary *Vivaldi* Concerto for 2 trumpets *Mozart* Symphony no 29 in A
Centre Stage - Peter Dono...
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Thu 24 Mar 2011 1:10pm Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre

*Peter Donohoe* _piano_ *CBSO Players*
*Martinů* _La Revue de Cuisine_ *Taneyev* Piano Quintet
CBSO Telling Tales
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Thu 24 Mar 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

Once upon a time...four composers set out to tell a story. Richard Strauss told the tale of a famous prankster, in some of his cheekiest and most playful music. Antonín Dvořák turned to Czech folklore, to spin a spine-chilling fairy-tale complete with storms, goblins and an underwater wedding. Leoš Janáček splashed great buckets of dazzling orchestral colour all over one of the most savage episodes in Russian history. And Franz Liszt...well, rumour had it that he was in league with Satan anyway! Peter Donohoe brings his trademark keyboard devilry to Liszt’s outrageous Second Concerto. For this evening of orchestral music at its most extravagantly entertaining, CBSO Assistant Conductor Michael Seal is your storyteller...so, if you’re sitting comfortably, we’ll begin!
*Michael Seal* _conductor_ *Peter Donohoe* _piano_
*Strauss* _Till Eulenspiegel_ 16’ *Liszt* Piano Concerto No. 2 22’ *Dvořák* _The Water Goblin_ 20’ *Janáček* _Taras Bulba_ 23’
Gergiev Conducts Mahler 7 Birmingham International Concert Season 2010/11
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Fri 25 Mar 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

The combination of Valery Gergiev, the London Symphony Orchestra and Mahler have wowed audiences and had critics reaching for superlatives. 'Raw energy and white hot climaxes' is how The Guardian described their revelatory performances. Tonight Gergiev turns his attention to the Seventh Symphony: an epic journey from darkness to overwhelming joyous affirmation, taking in two eerie and fantastical night-music movements along the way. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk. Part of "The Birmingham Mahler Cycle":http://www.thsh.co.uk/the-birmingham-mahler-cycle
"*London Symphony Orchestra*":http://lso.co.uk/home/ *Valery Gergiev* _conductor_
*Mahler* Symphony No 7 78’ There is no interval and the concert will end at approximately 8.50pm.
CBSO Singalong: Faur&eacu... Singer Tickets
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Sun 27 Mar 2011 1:30pm Symphony Hall

Don’t miss the chance to join the CBSO and its world-renowned chorus director Simon Halsey for a spectacular day in the company of over 1000 other singers, in Birmingham’s wonderful Symphony Hall. The Fauré _Requiem_ has long been a favourite of choirs and singers everywhere, with so many moments of sublime beauty. Handel’s Coronation anthem _Zadok the Priest_ is a contrast in almost every way: joyous, uplifting and radiant in its celebratory majesty. They add up to an unmissable day for anyone who enjoys singing.
*Simon Halsey* _conductor_ *CBSO Children's Chorus*
*Handel* _Zadok the Priest_ 5' *Fauré* _Requiem_ 38'
CBSO Singalong: Faur&eacu... Score Hire
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Sun 27 Mar 2011 1:30pm Symphony Hall

Don’t miss the chance to join the CBSO and its world-renowned chorus director Simon Halsey for a spectacular day in the company of over 1000 other singers, in Birmingham’s wonderful Symphony Hall. The Fauré _Requiem_ has long been a favourite of choirs and singers everywhere, with so many moments of sublime beauty. Handel’s Coronation anthem _Zadok the Priest_ is a contrast in almost every way: joyous, uplifting and radiant in its celebratory majesty. They add up to an unmissable day for anyone who enjoys singing.
*Simon Halsey* _conductor_ *CBSO Children's Chorus*
*Handel* _Zadok the Priest_ 5' *Fauré* _Requiem_ 38'
CBSO Singalong: Faur&eacu... Audience Tickets
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Sun 27 Mar 2011 7:00pm Symphony Hall

Don’t miss the chance to join the CBSO and its world-renowned chorus director Simon Halsey for a spectacular day in the company of over 1000 other singers, in Birmingham’s wonderful Symphony Hall. The Fauré _Requiem_ has long been a favourite of choirs and singers everywhere, with so many moments of sublime beauty. Handel’s Coronation anthem _Zadok the Priest_ is a contrast in almost every way: joyous, uplifting and radiant in its celebratory majesty. They add up to an unmissable day for anyone who enjoys singing.
*Simon Halsey* _conductor_ *CBSO Children's Chorus*
*Handel* _Zadok the Priest_ 5' *Fauré* _Requiem_ 38'
CBSO The Birmingham Mahle...
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Tue 29 Mar 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

Art imitates life - it isn’t meant to happen the other way round. Mahler imagined his mighty Sixth Symphony as an epic musical tragedy, in which a hero is destroyed by three devastating blows of fate. And then…he lost his job, was diagnosed with heart disease, and lost his five-year old daughter. Coincidence? Mahler didn’t think so. And you can tell why; he’d filled every bar of this immense symphony with his most heartfelt and intimate emotions. It’s a musical experience like no other, a symphony that leaves no listener unmoved - and it absolutely has to be heard live. In the hands of master-Mahlerian Jac van Steen be ready to be astonished, to be moved, and to be shaken to the very depths of your being. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk with Malcolm MacDonald about Mahler's Symphony No. 6. Part of "The Birmingham Mahler Cycle":http://www.thsh.co.uk/the-birmingham-mahler-cycle
*Jac van Steen* _conductor_
*Mahler* Symphony No. 6 85’
CBSO Friday Night Classic...
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Fri 1 Apr 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

The nation’s favourite song-smith, Andrew Lloyd Webber® hasn’t been out of the public eye for decades - as a musical composer, theatre impresario, and now talent show judge. He’s broken records, won awards aplenty, and topped charts around the world. Join us as we revel in Lord Lloyd Webber’s® unforgettable technicolor tunes, in the company of great West End vocalists. Expect a night packed with all your best-loved songs, from _Don’t Cry For Me Argentina_ to _Love Changes Everything_, _Any Dream Will Do_ to _Memory_. We’ll even be giving you a taste of his latest show, _Love Never Dies_, the long-awaited sequel to _Phantom_. Produced in association with West End International.
*Nick Davies* _conductor_ *West End vocalists*
Including hits from: _Love Never Dies_, _The Phantom of the Opera_, _Cats_, _Evita_, _Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat_, _The Woman in White_, _Starlight Express_, _Aspects of Love_, _Jesus Christ Superstar_, _Whistle Down the Wind_, _Sunset Boulevard_
Birmingham Bach Choir Inspiring Masses 4
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Sat 2 Apr 2011 7:30pm Town Hall
CBSO British Classics - M...
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Wed 6 Apr 2011 2:15pm Symphony Hall

Springtime in England; and what better way to celebrate it than with this delightfully tuneful afternoon of pure Light Programme indulgence? Some of these pieces are light-music classics, others are the kind of melodies you're always humming but can't put a name to; either way, they'll come up fresh as a daisy under John Wilson's sparkling baton. If you know Arthur Benjamin as composer of that pre-war hit _Jamaican Rhumba_, you’ll know to expect some cracking tunes in this rare performance of his gorgeous _Romantic Fantasty_. You won’t be disappointed - and it’ll be an oasis of calm after the jazz-age hi-jinks of Walton’s zingy _Portsmouth Point_.
*John Wilson* _conductor_ *Andrew Haveron* _violin_ *Lawrence Power* _viola_
*Walton* _Portsmouth Point_ 6' *Delius* _Summer Night on the River_ 5' *Benjamin* _Romantic Fantasy_ 20' *Haydn Wood* _The Horse Guards, Whitehall_ 4' *Sullivan* _The Mikado_ - Overture 7' *Hartley* _Rouge et Noir_ 4' *Elgar* _Salut d'Amour_ 4' *Farnon* _Pictures in the Fire_ 4' *Warner* _Scrub, Brothers, Scrub!_ 4' *Toye* _The Haunted Ballroom_ 8' *Coates* _London Suite_ 15'
Celebrity Piano Recital: ... Birmingham International Concert Season 2010/11
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Thu 7 Apr 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

Freddy Kempf’s big break came when he _didn’t_ win the 1998 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. The audience complained, the Russian press protested and he shot to prominence overnight. Since then he has been acknowledged as one of the world’s leading pianists. Tonight his programme ranges from the irresistable energy of Beethoven’s _Waldstein_ to Schumann’s fantastical _Kreisleriana_ and includes a real novelty in Rachmaninov’s Bach arrangement.

*Beethoven* _Eroica Variations_ 24’ *Beethoven* Piano Sonata No 21 in C, Op 53, _Waldstein_ 22’ *Bach-Rachmaninov* Partita in E major 9’ *Schumann* _Kreisleriana_, Op 16 30’
CBSO Queen Haïm
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Sat 9 Apr 2011 7:00pm Town Hall

Forget about _Avatar_. For a world truly beyond the imagination, follow Emmanuelle Haïm into the astonishing realm of the French Baroque. It’s a world of sun kings and thunder gods, of lovers and nymphs, of flying monsters, singing frogs and dancing butterflies. It’s all there in the sensational music of Rameau and Lully - no 3D specs required - and there’s no more flamboyant guide than the woman they’ve called “The Ms Dynamite of the French Baroque”. She’s also applying her trademark French polish to the equally fantastical world conjured up by Purcell’s version of Shakespeare’s _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. 5.45pm Pre-concert talk. Conductor and harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm, in conversation with Simon Webb of the CBSO.
*Emmanuelle Haïm* _conductor_ *Lucy Crowe** _soprano_ *Ed Lyon* _tenor_ *this replaces Jaël Azzaretti
*Lully* _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_ - Suite 18’ *Purcell* _The Fairy Queen_ - Suite 30’ *Rameau* Arias, duets and orchestral music from the operas 45’
Centre Stage - The Leo Qu...
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Thu 14 Apr 2011 1:10pm Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre

*The Leo Quartet*
*Haydn* ‘Joke’ Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 *Borodin* String Quartet No. 2
CBSO Ballets Russes
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Thu 14 Apr 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes launched twentieth-century art in a blaze of energy. As part of the CBSO’s ten-year 2020 project, we celebrate that astonishing moment with two of the revolutionary scores that Diaghilev commissioned from the most brilliant composers of the age. Stravinsky’s _Petrushka_ tells a fantastic story of love and death amidst the marionettes at Russian spring fair; Ravel’s _Daphnis et Chloé_, meanwhile, is a love story of Ancient Greece, set to some of the most sensuous music ever written for the stage. It’s rarely heard in its entirety, and almost never in an acoustic as perfect as Symphony Hall. Prepare to be dazzled. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk. A personal perspective from Giannandrea Poesio, dance critic of _The Spectator_.
*Andris Nelsons* _conductor_ *CBSO Chorus*
*Stravinsky* _Petrushka_ 34’ *Ravel* _Daphnis et Chloé_ 50’
Chris de Burgh and Band. Moonfleet Tour 2011
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Fri 15 Apr 2011 7:30pm Symphony Hall

Following his 2 sold out shows in May 2009, Chris de Burgh & band will return to Symphony Hall as part of the _Moonfleet_ tour. Chris de Burgh - The facts speak for themselves; a career encompassing 17 studio albums, approaching 3,000 concerts worldwide, plaudits and landmarks too numerous to mention- with LP sales in excess of 45 million... and counting. Best known for his classic hits _Don’t Pay The Ferryman_, _High On Emotion_, _Spanish Train_ & _The Lady In Red_, which achieved No. 1 status in 25 countries around the world and is still one of the most played songs on the planet. Chris & his band will perform some classic favourites and songs from his new album _Moonfleet_ which is currently in production.
PLEASE NOTE THESE CONCERTS ARE IN APRIL 2011