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Review: CBSO at Symphony Hall

The orchestra's final concert of the season started with something of awhimper but ended with abang -in the rousing final dance of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé Suite No.2. Read

Review: Alfred Brendel at Symphony Hall

It is fitting that Alfred Brendel programmed Schubert's piano sonata in B flat major to end his last concert at Symphony Hall. Read

Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra at the Town Hall

Messiaen would have been proud of these young musicians performing the first concert in the international Messiaen Centenary Conference, attended by world-wide scholars. Music from this 21year old already had his distinctive character. Read

Review: CBSO at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Saturday's CBSO concert celebrated Simon Halsey's silver jubilee as director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus. Read

An Evening Of Rossini at Birmingham Hippodrome

Rossini's cantatas are little known and rarely performed, so the chance to hear three of them in one evening should have been irresistible. Wednesday's meagre audience at the Hippodrome, however, suggested otherwise. Read

Review: Ex Cathedra at Birmingham Oratory

For Ex Cathedra's highly-popular, long-established annual series of offerings of "Summer Vespers by Candlelight" within the sumptuous, evocative surroundings of the Birmingham Oratory, Jeffrey Skidmore has never been content merely to rotate through the small number of established settings that exist in the canon. Read

Review: CBSO at Symphony Hall

This concert of American music raced out of the blocks with a dashing and athletic performance of Leonard Bernstein's overture to his opera Candide. He employs a large orchestra, with a big body of strings and percussion, very deftly in this delightful pot pourri of operatic themes. American conductor Andrew Litton carefully built up the tension for the final crescendo, based on of Cunegonde's showpiece aria Glitter and Be Gay, which whirled into an exhilarating climax. In five minutes it displays many of the qualities that we love about American music - tunefulness, energy, generosity of spirit, lack of pretension and a certain musical wit. Read

The joys of having a 'dream job' for 25years

Simon Halsey's 25 years as director of the CBSO's choruses have seen a steady growth in their range and international renown. Read

Decade of perfection at the CBSO with Sakari Oramo

Sakari Oramo conducts his finnal concert as CBSO's music director at Symphony Hall tonight. He talked to Terry Grimley about the orchestra and plans for his future role as principal guest conductor. Read

Julian's new role to help raise the profile of the ESM

Julian Lloyd Webber talks to Christopher Morley about his new relationship with Worcester's Elgar School of Music. Read

Review: Verdi's Requiem at Symphony Hall

Painting a great fresco in sound depicting humanity trembling on the brink of Judgment Day, Verdi's Requiem speaks for all of us. The scenes it evokes are apocalyptic, the pleadings from soloists and chorus are touching in the faith that an eternity of light might lie beyond. Read

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at CBSO Centre

On Thursday evening the Integra 2008 Festival - an event so vibrant and important in its assembling of so many contemporary music groups and technologists in Birmingham that it shouldn't have kept its light so blushingly under a bushel - was preceded by a crass musical commentary on a live BBC4 News broadcast. Read

Rutter Conducts Rutter at Symphony Hall

If there is an afterlife what might it be like? In their sacred music composers have, indirectly, suggested some answers. The Requiems of Mozart and Verdi evoke worlds of terror and transcendent bliss. John Rutter's Requiem, like that of Faure's which it resembles, is a much cosier vision. There are no sublime landscapes and the sulphurous fires of judgment day have been abolished. After the opening timpani roll, it is very much sweetness and light all the way. Read

Composers promise an NGA fjord fiesta

Terry Grimley previews a feast of international electronic music which forms part of the New Generation Arts Festival. Read

Review: Philharmonia Orchestra at Symphony Hall

So much emphasis has been placed on the political issues surrounding Shostakovich's fifth symphony that it's easy to overlook what really matters about it - the music itself. Read

Review: Orchestra Of The Swan at Birmingham Town Hall

Bits and pieces concerts of well-worn favourites may not be calculated to set a Sunday afternoon alight, but this one certainly did. Read

English Symphony Orchestra, CBSO at Worcester Cathedral, Symphony Hall

Friday must have been one of the headiest days in Stephen Roberts' life. In between two BBC radio interviews he gave the world premiere of Mozart's Horn Concerto. Read

Czech Mates by the CBSO, plus Carlo Curley at Birmingham Town Hall

Fireworks come in various shapes and sizes, and Wednesday’s two concerts had their fair share of sky rockets and sparklers – plus several duds. Read

Birmingham man completes Mozart's Horn Concerto

Birmingham composer and horn-player Stephen Roberts will give the premiere of his completion of an unfinished concerto by Mozart at Worcester Cathedral on Friday night. Read

Birmingham man completes Mozart's Horn Concerto

Birmingham composer and horn-player Stephen Roberts will give the premiere of his completion of an unfinished concerto by Mozart at Worcester Cathedral on Friday night. Read