Midlands Classical Music Making

  MARK BEBBINGTON Wigmore Hall, London  Over the years Mark Bebbington has developed into a pianist with a remarkable mastery of texture, judiciously weighting the balance of his flexible hands to draw out and colour every line. This, allied with a wonderful warmth of dynamics, the softest of pianissimi never thin, the power of the beefiest fortissimo never ear-jangling, permits performances which are totally engrossing and always musically rewarding. A packed and enthusiastic Sunday morning audience at the Wigmore Hall responded to these qualities with a huge ovation at the end of a well-planned hour-long programme. which began with Cesar Franck’s mighty Prelude, Choral et Fugue. Waiting for the “Bernstein moment” (the precise moment the great maestro said was the only time to launch a performance), Bebbington set forth on a journey focussing our concentration as well as his own, building a sombre atmosphere in which the transitional passages became equally as impor...

 EX CATHEDRA St. Paul’s Church, Birmingham ***** One of the challenges of hitting on such a consistently winning formula as Ex Cathedra’s annual ‘Christmas Music by Candlelight’ series is that it’s all too easy to rest on one’s (programming) laurels. Perhaps mindful of this, Conductor Jeffrey Skidmore decided to mix things up a little this year with no fewer than four audience participation opportunities, necessitating a little rehearsal just before proceedings formally started. This pre-rehearsal certainly paid off in Judith Weir’s ‘My Guardian Angel’, the choir declaiming high above the audience’s 14-bar ‘Alleluia’ refrain before joining the theme themselves in harmony. The choristers also led the audience in a hearty rendition of ‘Auld lang syne’, Skidmore reminding us of the correct yet often misconstrued pronunciation. There was perhaps a touch more humour in evidence this year too: especially enjoyable was a ‘Somerset Wassail’, Skidmore himself taking the solo line from the p...

  CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★ The stage was set for something grand and imposing. Filled to overflowing with just short of a hundred players on the platform, nine basses in line along the back like sentries, the same number of horns on the left wing. We were treated to a performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No.9 that justified these massive forces. There are two main approaches to this valedictory work. The first sees it as the culmination of the nineteenth century tradition, gaunt, grand, broad in scope and tempi. The second as a precursor of twentieth century angst, existential doubt and terror. Kazuki Yamada adhered to the first path, his expansive, though never dragging, tempi approaching those of Giulini and the Vienna Philharmonic’s nonpareil recording of the work. The spell is cast in the opening notes, the groundwork of tremolando strings, and then a call from the horns presaging some mighty message – a wonderful start.The scherzo was just about perfect. Inspired by the scherz...

  STIRRING ELGAR CONCERTO FROM THE CBSO LEADER CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★ Elgar’s Violin Concerto has provided almost as many opportunities for pointless speculation as his ‘Enigma’ Variations. Who is referred to in the work’s inscription, “Herein is enshrined the soul of...”? Is it someone codenamed “Windflower” after whom several of the work’s themes are named? Is it Alice Stuart-Wortley, daughter of the painter John Everett Millais? Is it Helen Weaver, or Elgar’s mother or possibly his wife? Who cares? Elgar himself told us all we need to know about the work when he said of it: “It's good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional, but I love it.” So would any unprejudiced listener after hearing this performance played with such tenderness, fierce concentration and passion by the CBSO’s leader Eugene Tzikindelean and backed to the hilt by the orchestra conducted by Kazuki Yamada. In the opening bars soloist and orchestra captured the mysterious haunting quality of the initial theme that ...