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Christopher Morley

Review: Strauss, Heldenleben, Rosenkavalier Suite (CD) - CBSO/Nelsons
Retail & Consumer
The CBSO鈥檚 new CD of music by Richard Strauss is spectacular, writes Christopher Morley.
Review: Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra at Adrian Boult Hall
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Last Saturday night鈥檚 packed house enjoyed an all-Russian programme, beginning with a fizzing Glinka Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, full-throated cellos gloriously to the fore, under Michael Seal鈥檚 baton.
Review: CBSO/Jonathan Biss/Roberto Spano at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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CBSO/Jonathan Biss/Roberto Spano at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Review: CBSO/Kristjan Jarvi, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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Those who stayed away from this concert missed a wonderful display of exuberance and orchestral virtuosity under the kinetic baton of Kristjan Jarvi.
Review: Advent Oratorio, at Lichfield Cathedral
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Advent Oratorio, at Lichfield Cathedral
Review: Ex Cathedra/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at Birmingham Town Hall
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There鈥檚 something strangely satisfying about the idea of Ex Cathedra using London鈥檚 Royal Festival Hall as a warm-up for the main event back home in Birmingham Town Hall, and that鈥檚 how I like to think of the choir鈥檚 recent travels with Elgar鈥檚 Dream of Gerontius.
Review: CBSO performs Haydn's Creation, at Symphony Hall
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Andris Nelsons often refers to the 鈥渇amily鈥 atmosphere at the CBSO, and this performance of Haydn鈥檚 Creation certainly glowed with it.
Review: Wagner/Lindberg/Bruckner, CBSO, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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Andris Nelsons is destined to become one of the greatest Wagnerian conductors of the 21st - or indeed any - century.
Elgar gem rediscovered
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Christopher Morley reviews a rediscovered Elgar rarity.
Review: CBSO play Haydn, Mozart and Rossini, at Birmingham Town Hall
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It was good to be reminded on Wednesday what a good "period" band the CBSO can be.
La Traviata, at Birmingham Hippodrome
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Music-theatre on a larger scale is currently at Birmingham Hippodrome with Welsh National Opera鈥檚 regular autumn residency, beginning with a new production of Verdi鈥檚 La Traviata, which is almost entirely a total winner (the only miscalculation is in portraying old man Germont as a self-righteous outcast to the end, when his music warms towards Violetta in her tragic situation).
Catherine Foster born to be a singer
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Birmingham Conservatoire helped a midwife to become an opera star, writes Christopher Morley
Review: Rumpelstiltskin, by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
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Rumpelstiltskin, by聽Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, at the聽CBSO Centre, Birmingham聽This modern-day reworking of the Brothers' Grimm unpleasant little tale of exploitation and victimisation has to be one of the most spectacular in Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's long list of highly successful "Sound Investment" commissions.聽David Sawer's sensitively illustrative score underpins the many imaginative details of Richard Jones' production, where the impoverished miller of yore is today a feckless, debt-ridden drunkard, his daughter (the expressive Bryony Perkins) a pawn in his desperate attempts to pay off the loan sharks, and when she becomes a trophy wife to Mister Big, things grow even more disturbingly dark.聽In all of this our sympathies go to the outcast Rumpelstiltskin himself, quite possibly the father of the baby at the heart of the climactic wrangle, and a role touchingly portrayed by Sarah Fahie, stepping in at only three days' notice.聽Martyn Brabbins was the unobtrusively efficient conductor in Saturday's two performances before packed houses of all ages, directing a willing BCMG ensemble, who, in makeup and appropriate garb, wandered around Stewart Laing's resourceful block-built house of a set to deliver Sawer's luminous commentaries upon the action.聽The six actor dancers evoked both compassion and humour in this 70-minute gem of a piece, which goes on tour in the next few weeks.
Macbeth, at Crescent Theatre, Birmingham
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It鈥檚 so good to see Midland Opera bouncing back towards the standards it once proudly displayed in its previous existence as Midland Music Makers Grand Opera Society, before a sad decline set in.
Verve and panache from Ex Cathedra
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Christopher Morley hails two new releases by Birmingham choir Ex Cathedra.
CBSO Youth Orchestra, at Symphony Hall
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I have to pinch myself to realise the concert I heard on Sunday was not being delivered by a full-time professional band.
Handel鈥檚 Alcina and Ariodante, English Touring Opera at Malvern Festival Theatre
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Handel鈥檚 Alcina and Ariodante, English Touring Opera at Malvern Festival Theatre
CBSO Youth Orchestra adds another string to its bow
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Christopher Morley looks ahead to the forthcoming CBSO Youth Orchestra concert and an exciting new commission.
Birmingham Bach Choir at the Symphony Hall
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On Saturday the Birmingham Bach Choir performed it in Robert Levin鈥檚 completion, cluttered and flashy, with dross which if it ever had been in Mozart鈥檚 wastepaper-basket, that fastidious composer would never have allowed to reappear.
Roderick Williams at The Artrix, Bromsgrove
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You could read huge significance into the fact that Elgar never set any of the much-loved poetry of his great contemporary and fellow Worcestershire lad, A.E.
Orchestra of the Swan, at Birmingham Town Hall
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IF there is a credit crunch going on, then Midland concertgoers are holding up two fingers to it.
Five-star treatment for an opera titan
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Handel is set to take over Malvern next week. Christopher Morley explains
Review: Dudley International Piano Competition at Dudley Concert Hall
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Music competitions are notorious mine-fields for a reviewer, as I know to my cost.
Review: CBSO / Mariinsky Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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CBSO/ Mariinsky Orchestra聽at Symphony Hall, Birmingham