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PREMIUM

Christopher Morley

Rachel Nicholls has no fear of performing Wagner
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Principal singer Rachel Nicholls can't wait to hold the stage for four hours, four times in one week, in Gotterdammerung, as Christopher Morley discovers.
Review: Nash Ensemble, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
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In a pre-performance interview with Cheltenham Festival director Meurig Bowen, Alexander Goehr described the difficulties of balance in composing a Trio for horn, violin and piano.
Review: Birmingham Bach Choir at Lichfield Cathedral
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Bach’s mighty Mass in B minor has long been a signature-work for the Birmingham Bach Choir, whose proudest performance of this masterpiece was surely in the Leipzig composer’s own St Thomas’s Church in the late spring of 1989.
CBSO stalwarts follow in footsteps of Mozart
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CBSO stalwarts call back the past to tackle one of the great composers, writes Christopher Morley.
Review: Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, Gregynog, near Newtown (Powys)
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Set amid a magnificently rolling mid-Wales hillscape (your SatNav will go mad in the attempt to find it, but try Tregynon; the roads could be better signed), the imposing Gregynog, a huge, not altogether engaging mansion (though its extensive parkland is hugely attractive), has long been a venue for one of the country’s most tempting music festivals.
Review: Orange County High School of the Arts, Birmingham Town Hall
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I have been on tours where musical organisations engage dedicated travel companies to secure concert venues for them and publicise the performances, and in my experience it has worked spectacularly well.
Review: Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, at Adrian Boult Hall
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Mufti-dressed musicians reinforced the party atmosphere for Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra’s 70th birthday concert, but in his post-performance speech conductor Michael Lloyd, immaculately dressed, chose not to dwell on the anniversary but to pay tribute instead to the unceasing commitment of the members.
Review: Babur in London, The Opera Group at CBSO Centre
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It comes to something when it takes as long to read the explanatory guff in the programme as it does to listen to the opera itself – and whatever happened to music being expected to make its own points?
Review: Weltethos, CBSO at Symphony Hall
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Launching the London 2012 Festival ahead of the Olympics, the CBSO and its massed choral forces got the festivities off in fine style with the º£½ÇÊÓƵ premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s massive ‘Weltethos’, first heard last year in Berlin, and with Thursday’s performance broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Review: Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra at Symphony Hall
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It was neatly appropriate that Sir Simon Rattle should make a rare return to the Symphony Hall podium on the day that the award of an OBE to the hall’s director, Andrew Jowett, was announced.
Review: Orchestra Of The Swan at Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon
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Last week I reviewed a bread-and-butter, standard repertoire concert from the Orchestra of the Swan; on Friday this polished, adept ensemble turned its attention to music that could not be more up-to-the-minute, with two world premieres and another major work from the end of the 20th century.
Review: Thomas Trotter at Symphony Hall
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Symphony Hall’s 21st Anniversary also gives us the chance to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of its magnificent Klais organ, as Thomas Trotter pointed out during Wednesday afternoon’s enthusiastically-received recital by this most genial, sympathetic and world-renowned performer - who has relaxed a bit of showmanship into his act.
Timely meditation on world peace as Olympics loom
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An epic and acclaimed work gets its º£½ÇÊÓƵ premiere tonight as the London 2012 Arts Festival begins.
Review: The Magic Flute, at Longborough Festival Opera
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Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ a confused, problematic, symbolism-ridden opera? Not a bit of it, if you follow the example of Longborough Festival Opera’s new staging and return this work -- so life-enhancing, yet written a mere handful of months before the composer’s death -- to its pantomimic roots.
Review: Paul Bunyan, at Barber Institute, University of Birmingham
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There are so many reasons making it easy to understand why Britten withdrew his early folk-opera ‘Paul Bunyan’, not allowing it to see the light of day again until very close to his death in 1976.
Review: Orchestra of the Swan, at Birmingham Town Hall
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Orchestra of the Swan’s association with Benjamin Grosvenor is paying wonderful dividends.
Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates 70th anniversary
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The Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Christopher Morley looks at how it has gone from playing in barracks and marquees to the Royal Albert Hall.
Review: Symphony Hall has 21st Anniversary Concert, CBSO, at Symphony Hall
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It is almost impossible to realise that Symphony Hall has for already 21 years been the jewel in Birmingham’s crown that it is, but Tuesday’s coming-of-age party atmosphere affirmed the fact, and made those of us who have been on the scene from day one feel ever-so-slightly aware of our advancing years.
Review: War Requiem, CBSO at Coventry Cathedral
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Fifty years on since it premiered Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’ in Sir Basil Spence’s newly-consecrated Coventry Cathedral on May 30 1962, there were so many resonances of that first performance as the CBSO revisited the venue with this moving, ineffable message of reconciliation, on the exact date of its golden jubilee.
Review: Angela Hewitt, at Forum Theatre, Malvern
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Tempted away from her beloved Fazioli, Angela Hewitt launched this year’s Malvern Festival on a magnificent Yamaha piano, confirming that company’s important association with the event.
Review: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CBSO Centre
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The space Oliver Knussen fills in the world of music is immense, and not only because of his big, genial frame.
Review: CBSO, at Symphony Hall
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Many of us would claim that Walton’s First Symphony is the greatest ever composed by a Briton, and Thursday’s performance by the CBSO would go a long way towards affirming that.
Making a mark on Malvern and Elgar
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Despite being an unskilled musician, Troyte Griffith made a lasting impression on composer Edward Elgar, as Christopher Morley reports.
Review: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, at CBSO Centre
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The space Oliver Knussen fills in the world of music is immense, and not only because of his big, genial frame.