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PREMIUM

Christopher Morley

Hidden talents of Anthony Hopkins to premiere in Birmingham
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Music composed by Hollywood legend Sir Anthony Hopkins will be at the centre of a CBSO festival.
Review: Verdi's Falstaff, Longborough Festival Opera
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The teamwork in performance for which Longborough Festival Opera has become legendary is very much in evidence in this new production of Verdi’s Falstaff.
Vibrant chorus at Lichfield Festival
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Christopher Morley previews the classical music programme at the Lichfield Festival.
Review: Ian Venables Premiere, Elias String Quartet, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
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The music of the Worcester-based composer Ian Venables has never failed to grip the listener with its accessibility and ability to communicate, and its fearless use of a tonality we all understand.
Review: War Requiem, Birmingham Conservatoire at Birmingham Town Hall
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Benjamin Britten’s pacifist, compassionate War Requiem moves the listener at any hearing, but how much more so it did when Birmingham Conservatoire presented it as its end-of-year major concert.
Review: Elijah, Making Music West Midlands at Birmingham Town Hall
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For its latest massed choir venture, drawing singers from across the entire breadth of the region, Making Music West Midlands confronted perhaps its biggest challenge yet – performing Mendelssohn’s Elijah on the very stage where the composer had conducted its premiere 165 years ago.
Gaynor Keeble has a song in her heart
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Christopher Morley speaks to Gaynor Keeble about her life as an opera diva.
Review: Venus and Adonis/Dido and Aeneas at Birmingham University Summer Festival
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John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, both composed within a few years of each other towards the end of the 17th century, on paper make the ideal double-bill for an operatic evening.
Review: CBSO/There Was A Child at Symphony Hall
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Jonathan Dove’s There Was a Child is a major addition to the choral repertoire, and will surely be taken up by societies up and down the country, perhaps with reduced orchestration for economy’s sake.
Review: Seven Angels/BCMG and The Opera Group at CBSO Centre
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Luke Bedford is a young composer acclaimed with several successes. But his opera Seven Angels proved less than auspicious at its premiere by the Opera Group and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Review: Cosi Fan Tutte at Longborough Festival Opera
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Year by year Longborough Festival Opera grows in its role of establishing itself as one of the region’s cultural gems.
Rousing reception for composer Felix Mendelssohn
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Composer Felix Mendelssohn came to Birmingham and was an instant hit, writes Christopher Morley.
Review: Orchestra of the Swan, at Birmingham Town Hall
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Orchestra of the Swan’s final concert for this season at Birmingham Town Hall was quite an occasion, with an absolute full house to hear Julian Lloyd Webber, OOTS’ current Associate Artist, play one of his signature works, the Cello Concerto by Elgar.
Review: Turandot, Welsh National Opera, at Birmingham Hippodrome
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I doubt there’s ever been a more compassionate production of Puccini’s Turandot than Christopher Alden’s for Welsh National Opera.
Review: Das Lied von der Erde, CBSO/Rattle at Symphony Hall
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Das Lied von der Erde on Sunday night concluded the complete Mahler cycle promoted jointly by the CBSO and Symphony Hall/ Town Hall’s Birmingham International Concert Season.
Orchestral manoeuvres for Andris Nelsons
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Could Andris Nelsons be poached from the CBSO? Christopher Morley speaks to the music director about his future plans.
Review: Turandot, performed by the Welsh National Opera, at Birmingham Hippodrome
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I doubt there’s ever been a more compassionate production of Puccini’s Turandot than Christopher Alden’s for Welsh National Opera.
Review: Ravel in Spain/CBSO at the Symphony Hall
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Difficult though it is to programme, Ravel’s one-act opera L’Heure Espagnole is a little gem of orchestral and dramatic wizardry, the cast so well characterised, the music so deftly and affectionately crafted.
Review: CBSO/Tragedy and Triumph at the Symphony Hall
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Andris Nelsons, the CBSO and Tchaikovsky have become synonymous, not least on disc, and the latest in their series of recordings will be eagerly awaited after this week’s performances set down for the Orfeo label.
Birmingham concert season set to hit the high notes
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Christopher Morley looks ahead to Birmingham’s concert season.
Review: Celebrating English Song/James Rutherford, Simon Lepper at Tardebigge Parish Church
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Composer John Pickard might be forgiven for thinking that his major new song, The Burning of the Leaves, had a jinx attached to it.
Review: Tchaikovsky - Andris Nelsons/CBSO, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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Andris Nelsons, the CBSO and Tchaikovsky have become synonymous, not least on disc, and the latest in their series of recordings will be eagerly awaited after this week’s performances set down for the Orfeo label.
Ravel's Spanish key
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An Iberian influence colours much of Maurice Ravel's finest work, not least Bolero.
Review: CBSO – Viennese masterpieces, at Symphony Hall
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Any conductor worth his salt can carve out a beat, but there are just a few who can transform the sound of an orchestra right from the moment they lift their baton for the initial upbeat.