Mahler's Symphony no.2, the Resurrection, has a habit of cropping up at crucial times in the CBSO's recent history.
Simon Rattle made this mighty piece an iconic one for the orchestra soon after his arrival in Birmingham as the orchestra's principal conductor. In 1988 their EMI recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus was awarded the ultimate accolade of Gramophone magazine's "Record of the Year", and it was the work chosen to be performed in a live television broadcast at the official opening of Symphony Hall on June 12 1991. It was also the last piece Sir Simon conducted with the CBSO before stepping down as musical director in 1998.
And now his successor, Sakari Oramo, has announced his own relinquishing of that musical directorship in 2008 after ten extraordinarily exciting years with the orchestra. Tonight he makes his first Birmingham appearance with the orchestra since making that announcement - and the main work on the programme is Mahler's Resurrection Symphony.
Joining the CBSO and CBSC tonight under Oramo are soprano Anu Komsi and mezzo Jane Irwin, who performed with such distinction with Oramo and the orchestra a few weeks ago as a late stand-in, singing Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. That song-cycle ends with a "farewell"; tonight we have a resurrection.
The concert (repeated on Saturday at 7pm) begins with another resurrection, a re-hearing of Thea Musgrave's pithy Concerto for Orchestra, premiered in 1968 as one of the CBSO's Feeney Trust commissions (Symphony Hall, 7.30pm).
On Sunday a unique concert at Symphony Hall brings Oramo and Rattle together on the same programme. The occasion is a memorial concert celebrating the life of the much-loved George Jonas, one-time hardworking chairman of the CBSO who was largely instrumental in persuading the young Simon Rattle
to take on the Birmingham appointment - and the consequences of that have been immense for the city, and not just musically.
Jonas was also a Symphony Hall board member until a month before his death last July, and the evening will raise funds in aid of the CBSO's and Symphony Hall's education and community programmes.
The programme reflects Jonas' musical tastes as well as those of the conductors, though, interestingly, each of these pieces could be considered a speciality of either of them: Mozart's Magic Flute Overture, Sibelius' Symphony no.5, Wagner's "Prelude and Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde and Elgar's Enigma Variations (7pm).
Monday continues this spotlight on recent CBSO conductors when Mark Elder, once a popular CBSO principal guest conductor and now the inspirational principal conductor of the Halle Orchestra, brings the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Symphony Chorus to Symphony Hall.
Beethoven's Symphony no.8 opens the programme, with Rossini's operatic and deeply-felt Stabat Mater as the main work. Among the vocal soloists are the popular New Zealand bass Jonathan Lemalu and the charismatic mezzo Daniella Barcelona, whom I have admired in several Rossini operas in the composer's birthplace of Pesaro on the Italian Adriatic coast (7.30pm, all Symphony Hall details on 0121 780 3333).
And finally in this trawl through conductors closely connected with the CBSO, Wednesday's concert at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall sees Michael Seal, recently-appointed CBSO associate conductor, swapping his second violin desk for the rostrum in a programme of Kodaly (the colourful Dances of Galanta) and Tchaikovsky's tuneful and exciting Symphony no.2, the Little Russian.
Guy Johnston, BBC Young Musician of the Year 2000 makes his debut with the orchestra, playing Dvorak's wonderful Cello Concerto (7.45pm, details on 01902 552121; Symphony Hall can hear the concert next Thursday at 2.15pm).
Other orchestral events around the region in the next few days include the Chandos Symphony Orchestra who manage to deliver such remarkable goods on only two weekends of rehearsal. Conductor Michael Lloyd's programme on Sunday in Malvern's Forum Theatre is entitled "An American Evening", and features Lorraine McAslan as soloist in Korngold's glowing Violin Concerto (7.45pm, details on 01684 892277).
On Monday Stratford-upon-Avon's Orchestra of the Swan continues its tenth anniversary celebrations with an attractive programme at the town's Civic Hall. Mozart and Stravinsky feature, and David Curtis also conducts the premiere of a new commission from Errolyn Wallen (7.30pm, details on 01789 207100).
On Saturday Halesowen's Corn-bow Hall is the venue for the latest in Halesowen Orchestra's enterprising series of events under the awesomely hard-working Martin Leigh. Brahms' stirring First Symphony is the main work in the concert which begins at 7.30pm (details on 0121 550 0956), and which also includes Dvorak's Gothic-horror tone-poem The Golden Spinning Wheel, with narration by the Birmingham Post's classical music correspondent.
