#cbso

[itsstreetlove]

Birmingham, Make Some Noise!

The CBSO Tram celebrating and promoting the iconic City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

July 2023

[woollymitts]

Trying to figure out when to go to CBSO or Proms to see her in actions

[britishhiphop]

Legacy Birmingham [12/04] and London [28/04] [Event]

Legacy are set to take over Birmingham [12/04] and London [28/04] with the likes of Jaykae, Lady Leshurr and The Rap Game UK finalist T.Roadz performing alongside a 60-piece orchestra. Honouring the city’s acclaimed Grime scene, this one-of-a-kind experience poses as the biggest collaboration between Grime and Orchestral music to date. You’ll get the chance to see “Toothache“, “Queen’s Speech 4”…

Legacy Birmingham [12/04] and London [28/04] [Event]

[tfblovesmusic]

How Ian Bostridge Unlocked my American Elementary School Memories

I have been swooning over Ian Bostridge's voice since middle school.

From watching the David Alden film of Franz Schubert's Winterreise on Ovation TV to borrowing a CD of Johann Sebastian Bach choral works with the Choir of King's College Cambridge and the Academy of Ancient Music under the late Sir Stephen Cleobury (His rendition of "Deposuit Potentes" in BWV 243 was FIRE!) a couple of times from the local library while I was living in the USA, the three-time GRAMMY winner's voice never has since failed to amaze me.

But it hasn't been his timbre that has made him my favorite classical music tenor of all time.

In April 2024, Ginong Bostridge stopped a performance of Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations at the Brum Symphony Hall for a glaring reason - young people were taping or photographing him on their phones. He interceded out loud, "The lights are shining directly in my eyes – it’s very distracting. Would you please put your phones down?"

He wasn't aware of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's then-new policy that started enabling audiences to film in a maximum of a minute or photograph classical music concerts, in a vain bid to attract more young audiences.

But it came with reservations. The rules stated, "We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members and suggest that you take pictures and videos during applause breaks. Please dim the brightness on your phone, and do not use your flash."

Ginong Bostridge - oblivious of the new rules during his performance - wasn't having any of that.

This video STRAIGHT-UP metaphorizes Bostridge responding to an errant phone light or ringtone at a concert.

"You're looking at the audience and it's very interrupting and distracting to have phones being held up," he told BBC Radio 4, "It breaks the spell. I didn't know about this policy and I wasn't making a protest of any sort to begin with, I simply couldn't carry on because I couldn't concentrate."

"Performances are a dialogue with the audience," baritone Christopher Maltman (who collaborated with Bostridge several times) commented to a Classic FM post on IG, We as performers rely on the audience’s attention and concentration. We are flesh and blood artists who are not unaffected by how audience members behave."

"We can see and hear you as you can see and hear us, and are distracted by movements in the audience and the glint of light reflected off phones, faces and arms as they are held up, whether they are dimmed or not. Fundamentally, we spend thousands and thousands of hours during our professional lives to hone our skills to be able to accomplish feats of dexterity, memory, concentration and artistic expression which are at or near the limit of human ability."

"We need the audience to be with us on that musical journey and even if the physical act of filming or taking photographs isn’t distracting to the point that it is at the detriment of our own focus, it’s is at the bare minimum a moment of departure for those who film from the covenant of live performance which is the beating heart of what we do."

"No photo, no video, and no recording can ever even remotely reproduce the magic of live performance and any marginal fringe benefit in terms of social media likes is nothing compared with the damage that is done by saying that it is fine to switch your brain off and switch your phone on in the concert hall or opera house. I personally have had to stop in my recitals more than once to request people view me with their eyes and listen with their ears rather than watch me second hand on a screen."

Sir Simon Rattle would also be most disappointed with the phone policies. Back in BBC Prom 55 with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003, he stopped a performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring because someone's Nokia blasted an abridged, chiptuned version of Francisco Tárrega's Gran Vals during the bassoon solo. The reviewer of MusicWeb Int'l heard a fellow audience member seated in front of him call the offending other the w-word.

Funnily enough, Ginong Bostridge unlocked many core memories of watching orchestras perform live - during the Garden State Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Cinderella and numerous field trips with my elementary and private schools.

The most memorable elementary school orchestra-centered field trip was in 2001. And it WASN'T ANY JUST ANY ORCHESTRA.

IT WAS THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA.

I would be entranced by Lanky Kong's Trombone Tremor when I would play Donkey Kong 64. I would watch The Lawrence Welk Show on WEDU each Saturday night. Throw in mornings with Classic Arts Showcase on my public access TV channel; several documentaries (Howard Goodall's notwithstanding) and performances I would see on Ovation TV; and previous experiences seeing orchestras live, and I was WELL-PREPPED.

Our 5th grade teacher told us what to expect AND how to dress for the concert - no jeans, T-shirts, or shorts. I wore the closest thing to jeans but much dressier - a denim midi dress. And we were too young to have cell phones back then!

The finest moment of the FL Orchestra's performance I and my 5th grade class attended was their opening orchestral excerpt, the overture to Leonard Bernstein's Candide. As Asher pointed out, I wished I would've taped it. But with us too young to have phones, with phones then lacking video capabilities, AND with us knowing concert etiquette from the back of our hands, taping it would've been all but so inconsiderate.

I would've gotten into trouble at school if I had done that.

"(The CBSO's phone policy) ignores the fact that allowing the use of phones during musical or theatrical performances is bad for everyone," Alexandra WIlson griped in The Critic.

To Ginong Bostridge: here's our power anthem! LET'S DO A DUET ON THIS!

"It’s bad for the performer, who is distracted by a sea of bright lights, or by the blaring of ring tones, and struggles to get into the zone or into character. A live classical concert, what’s more, is not a recording session, and comes with an element of risk for the musician involved. The singer lays bare his or her soul, and in doing so relies upon a certain amount of implied contractual trust — the understanding that people aren’t going to stick that fluffed top note on YouTube."

"Phone use is also bad for other audience members, for whom this concert or play may be a long-saved-up-for treat, and who should have a reasonable expectation to be able to concentrate."

"You certainly don’t have to be a finishing-school graduate to be irked by a thoughtless neighbor who gives a damn about no-one but themselves."

"All live music is precious and fragile," Maltman summarized, "Switch your phones off and allow your mind to engage with the beauty of it. Please."

To conclude this post, lemme show y'all the March 1995 Beeb broadcast of various Henry Purcell choral works and songs! JUST scroll to 49:25 and press play - 30-year-old Ginong Bostridge in a FLUTIN' TRIO WITH DAME EMMA KIRKBY AND MICHAEL CHANCE is SO FIRE! Cell phones with touchscreens and built-in cameras had YET to stymie that magical moment back when it was broadcasted!

[sumpix]

Two Fanfares for Orchestra: II. Short Ride in a Fast Machine

[randomrecordreview]

All hail, the new king in town! @shekukannehmason receiving rapturous applause after his stunning performance of #elgarcelloconcerto with the #cbso at @bbc_proms https://www.instagram.com/p/B1e6aijAdY2/?igshid=yrj0hrmxy9gv

[classicalcoventrian]

I had the privilege this evening to see the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven’s 9th with Simon Rattle conducting. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. The orchestra were on top form, as were the CBSO Chorus, and I will never cease to be amazed by the ease with which Rattle holds everything together. He played with tempo and dynamics throughout the piece, and not once did it feel rushed or disjointed. He knows what that orchestra are capable of and he held nothing back. It was extraordinary.

If anyone ever has the chance to see the CBSO in concert, take it. They are one of the great orchestras. And if you have the chance to see them at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, they will blow your mind. The acoustics in that hall are truly second to none.

[woollymitts]

Behind the Scenes - Series 1, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla - @bbcradio4 Can someone clone her please? Amazing musician, mesmerising conductor