What's On — CBSO events

Mahler’s Resurrection
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Sun 31 May 2009 Symphony Hall

Andris Nelsons is the latest CBSO music director to bring us his interpretation of Mahler’s huge, all-embracing Resurrection symphony, long a CBSO speciality. Featuring a gigantic orchestra - on and offstage - as well as vocalists and chorus, this is one of the biggest statements in late-romantic art. Mahler’s emotional intensity, his echoing trumpet calls and his way of dividing the orchestra into different groups all find a contemporary echo in a recent work by leading German composer Jörg Widmann.
Andris Nelsons - conductor Sarah Fox - soprano Mihoko Fujimura - mezzo-soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) 77’
Shostakovich’s Fifth
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Sat 6 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

Three composers on a learning curve. Shostakovich’s epic Symphony is a powerful music portrait of a great artist learning the hard way about tyranny. Composed at the height of Stalin’s terror, its triumphant finish is either a bitterly ironic comment on its times, or an heroic victory for freedom. Decide for yourself - either way, it’s a gripping journey. Britten’s ravishing song-cycle finds him at the start of a lifelong love-affair with the human voice - but it’s no less magical for it. And Mahler’s teenage Symphonic Prelude is a real find, packed with all its composer’s trademark drama and angst.
John Storgårds - conductor Barbara Hannigan - soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mahler: Symphonic Prelude 10’ Britten: Les Illuminations 23’ Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 47’
Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian
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Wed 17 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

After Hamlet in November, Andris Nelsons offers us another of Tchaikovsky’s responses to Shakespeare, a passionate fantasy overture based on the kind of story of doomed love to which the composer was naturally drawn. But Tchaikovsky is not always doom and gloom, and his Second Symphony uses folk music to create a tuneful work of great charm. Britten, a more openly gay composer than Tchaikovsky, nevertheless suffered his own share of inner torment - but in his Serenade we hear his acutely sympathetic response to great English poems from across the ages. This concert is followed by a Members’ Afternoon Tea with Elspeth Dutch, in conversation with Christopher Morley of The Birmingham Post. 1.15pm Pre-concert talk - The Little Russian Roderic Dunnett of The Independent gives a user’s guide to Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony
Andris Nelsons - conductor Elspeth Dutch - horn Toby Spence - tenor City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet 21’ Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings 26’ Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 (Little Russian) 33’
Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian
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Thu 18 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

After Hamlet in November, Andris Nelsons offers us another of Tchaikovsky’s responses to Shakespeare, a passionate fantasy overture based on the kind of story of doomed love to which the composer was naturally drawn. But Tchaikovsky is not always doom and gloom, and his Second Symphony uses folk music to create a tuneful work of great charm. Britten, a more openly gay composer than Tchaikovsky, nevertheless suffered his own share of inner torment - but in his Serenade we hear his acutely sympathetic response to great English poems from across the ages. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk - The Little Russian Roderic Dunnett of The Independent gives a user’s guide to Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony
Andris Nelsons - conductor Elspeth Dutch - horn Toby Spence - tenor City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet 21’ Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings 26’ Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 (Little Russian) 33’
Notelets Music for the Screen 11am
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Sun 21 Jun 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre

Music for the Screen - a mini concert for 3-5 year olds and their families, featuring favourite tunes from children’s television and film.
Notelets Music for the Screen 2pm
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Sun 21 Jun 2009 Book through our ticket office for CBSO Centre

Music for the Screen - a mini concert for 3-5 year olds and their families, featuring favourite tunes from children’s television and film.
A Hero’s Life
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Wed 24 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

To close his first season, Andris Nelsons returns to his love of Richard Strauss, with the epic, semi-autobiographical tone poem in which the composer charts his marriage, his battles with his critics and his own earlier artistic creations. Haydn’s most famous mass - named for a great hero - also incorporates the sounds of war, and like Strauss, the composer pleads for a peace - Dona Nobis Pacem - that eventually arrives.
Andris Nelsons - conductor Claire Booth - soprano Hilary Summers - mezzo-soprano Andrew Kennedy - tenor Graeme Broadbent - bass City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Haydn: Nelson Mass 43’ Strauss: Ein Heldenleben 46’
A Hero’s Life
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Sat 27 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

To close his first season, Andris Nelsons returns to his love of Richard Strauss, with the epic, semi-autobiographical tone poem in which the composer charts his marriage, his battles with his critics and his own earlier artistic creations. Haydn’s most famous mass - named for a great hero - also incorporates the sounds of war, and like Strauss, the composer pleads for a peace - Dona Nobis Pacem - that eventually arrives. c.9.15pm Post-concert conversation With Andris Nelsons and Stephen Maddock.
Andris Nelsons - conductor Claire Booth - soprano Hilary Summers - mezzo-soprano Andrew Kennedy - tenor Graeme Broadbent - bass City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Haydn: Nelson Mass 43’ Strauss: Ein Heldenleben 46’
No Place Like Home
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Tue 30 Jun 2009 Symphony Hall

The brilliant young Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, making his second visit to the CBSO, brings with him the charming Flute Concerto by his compatriot Carl Nielsen, for which he will be joined by the CBSO’s outstanding flute section leader. The light-hearted side of the Danish character which Nielsen portrays here finds a good match in a tuneful suite by his contemporary Sibelius, drawn from the same patriotic pageant that also produced Finlandia. Dvorák was just as concerned as these two composers with reflecting national character through music, and his stirring Seventh Symphony is reckoned by many to be his finest orchestral work. 6.15pm Pre-concert talk - The Player’s Perspective • Dvorák’s Seventh Introduced by David Gregory - CBSO violinist.
Thomas Søndergård - conductor Marie-Christine Zupancic - flute City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sibelius: Scènes historiques - Suite No. 1 20’ Nielsen: Flute Concerto 20’ Dvorák: Symphony No. 7 38’
Friday Night Classics: Bernstein on Broadway
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Fri 3 Jul 2009 Symphony Hall

Showman, maestro, composer and party animal, Leonard Bernstein was the ultimate musical all-rounder - and he just happened to write some of the best tunes of the 20th century. Carl Davis brings his own brand of Broadway pizzazz to this all-singing, all-dancing salute to Bernstein - from the anarchic comedy of Candide to the urban drama and sheer passion of West Side Story. With a line-up that includes Tonight, America, Overture to Candide - and, of course, New York, New York - it’s just one great tune after another. And with Lennie, Carl and the CBSO, it’s a helluva sound!
Carl Davis - conductor Mary Carewe - vocalist Sarah Eyden - vocalist City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra