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Richard Bratby
Classical music reviewer for the Birmingham Post
Birmingham conductor right at home in Parma
CBSO
Former CBSO assistant conductor Alpesh Chauhan is enjoying the delights of being at the helm of an Italian orchestra... including the Parma ham and prosecco!
Review: CBSO with Nicholas Collon at Birmingham Symphony Hall
CBSO
For its first performance of the Konzertstück this century the CBSO put its own home team out front.
Review: Ravi Shankar's Sukanya at Symphony Hall
Birmingham Symphony Hall
Musically, we heard generic moods – rapture, celebration – rather than the individual characters sketched by Amit Chaudhuri’s concise libretto.
Review: Tosca, English Touring Opera at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
Wolverhampton
Amidst the scenic splendour of some productions, it's easy to forget that Tosca is actually one hell of a thriller.
Review: Call Me God: A Dictator's Final Speech at Symphony Hall
Birmingham Symphony Hall
Malkovich’s gift, paradoxically, is to make this whole compellingly horrible spectacle feel like a lot more than just a one-man show.
Review: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at the CBSO Centre
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
With BCMG, quality has always been more important than quantity.
Review: Macbeth by Welsh National Opera
Birmingham Hippodrome
Only the most blinkered opera-lovers object to an intelligent updating, but it was hard to see what new perspectives this offered.
Review: Cavalleria Rusticana / I Pagliacci, Midland Opera at Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham
Retail & Consumer
Midland Opera’s latest production takes Cav and Pag and relocates them to the world of Guys and Dolls. And it works.
Review: Three Choirs Festival: Dona Nobis Pacem at Gloucester Cathedral
Retail & Consumer
There was nothing remotely dusty about this Three Choirs Festival performance by the Philharmonia in Gloucester Cathedral.
Review: Amuse-Bouche, I Fagiolini at Lichfield Festival
Lichfield
Jean Francaix's extraordinary Ode à la gastronomie is a tour-de-force, and I Fagiolini performed it with wit, precision and (when the music called for it) lip-smacking relish.
Review: Manchester Camerata at Lichfield Festival
Lichfield
The opening concert of the Lichfield Festival featured two world premieres.
Review: Ex Cathedra at St Philip's Cathedral
Retail & Consumer
It begins with David Matthews' stunning, antiphonal Lichfield commission Dawn Chorus and ends with an eventide plainchant.
Review: Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra at St James' Church, Chipping Campden
Retail & Consumer
You only have to leaf through its programme to see that the Chipping Campden International Music Festival is a class act.
Review: Daniel Hope and L’Arte del Mondo at Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall
Daniel Hope bobs, he bounces, he bends almost double - all the while spinning a rich, glittering stream of notes.
Review: Don Giovanni at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
Wolverhampton
I don’t think I've seen a Don Giovanni that simply tells the story more effectively than director Lloyd Wood does here.
Review: Iphigénie en Tauride at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
Wolverhampton
Any preconceptions that English Touring Opera's new production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride was going to be a chilly experience were swept away within seconds.
Review: Vaughan Williams’ Fifth, John Wilson and CBSO at Symphony Hall
CBSO
John Wilson has a knack for making an orchestra glow, and the CBSO responded with ardour.
Review: The Devil Inside, Music Theatre Wales at Birmingham Rep
Birmingham Hippodrome
The Devil Inside makes a strong start, with a terrific plot adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson.
Review: Orchestra of the Swan at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Orchestra Of The Swan
There was a special atmosphere about this world premiere, given by David Curtis and the Orchestra of the Swan as part of the Shakespeare 400 commemorations.
Review: The Secret Life of the Organ at Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall
One unintended consequence of this concert was how thoroughly it proved that Philip Glass is one of the most potent and distinctive musical minds of our time.
Review: Dan Tepfer - Goldberg Variations at the Symphony Hall
Birmingham Symphony Hall
Taken alone as a classical recital, this would have been a wonderfully fresh and intelligent journey through the Goldbergs.
Review: CBSO, Olari Elts and Baiba Skride at Symphony Hall
Birmingham Symphony Hall
Olari Elts went on to sculpt Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony in big, sweeping gestures and a positively lurid palette of orchestral colours.
Review: Nigel Kennedy at the Symphony Hall
Birmingham Symphony Hall
Nigel Kennedy clumps on stage in fluorescent yellow trainers and a donkey-jacket. Of course he does: that’s who he is, that’s what he does.
Review: Ex Cathedra: Christmas Music by Candlelight at St Paul's Church
Christmas
It's not every Christmas concert that complete strangers in the audience spontaneously offer you a mug of mulled wine in the interval, but then Christmas Music by Candlelight isn't just any Christmas concert.
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