Symphony Hall, Birmingham

At last! I have been wanting to go to the this concert hall ever since it opened in April 1991 and on Wednesday of last week I actually got there, with the added advantage of hearing the City of Birmingham Orchestra on its home territory. It’s a huge building; the arsenal of fearsome organ pipes the focus at one end, and a precipitous gallery near to the roof at the other. The honey-coloured pine wood and orange/red seating give a harmonious unity to the whole auditorium, the acoustic and lighting canopy hovering above it like some friendly visitor from outer space. Planned on traditional lines – it reminded me strangely of the very different Concertgebouw in Amsterdam – it has a welcoming and modern feel to it (though there could be more generous provision of toilets on Level Four!).

If the design of the Hall was visually impressive on this my first visit, the sound of the music was sensational. I have never heard an orchestra with such clarity and with so perfect a balance between the instruments. (Again Amsterdam comes to mind – another superb acoustic).The concert began with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and the opening mighty chords were for me like a declaration to prove that all the claims for exceptional acoustic brilliance were fully justified : orchestral music with a purity I have never heard before.

This was a matinee and the hall was full of retired people like me, in the interval refreshing themselves from little trays of cups and tea pots, the place buzzing with conversation. A real sense of a place and of mutual enjoyment. And the rest of the programme? Mozart’s 40th. Symphony, and Brahms 1st Piano concerto played by Elisabeth Leonskaja, in what I thought was a rather under-powered performance but one which delighted the large audience. The athletic conductor was Yannick Nezet Seguin, a Canadian with many musical responsibilities to his (unusual) name. It was a good concert by my favourite orchestra, but the venue itself demands that I must take the journey to Birmingham again.

The following day I attended a concert in Bristol’s Colston Hall, the orchestra this time being London’s Philharmonia. I am sure they performed as well as the C.B.S.O. and Mahler’s 4th Symphony under the Australian conductor Alexander Briger – conducting at short notice - was sensitively and powerfully played. But the difference in the sound between the two concerts was unmistakable.

B.R.

Sir Charles Mackerras

Charles Mackerras is one of those versatile musicians whose art encompasses many genres. Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1925, he was in fact raised in Australia, where he studied oboe, piano, and composition at the New South Wales Conservatorium in Sydney. In 1945 he joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as principal oboist (later he became their chief conductor), but came to Europe in 1947. I first became aware of him when I bought his LP of music by Arthur Sullivan which he arranged for the ballet ‘Pineapple Poll’. I became conscious then of his growing reputation as a champion of the Czech composer Janacek – indeed one could say he introduced him to the West, becoming the foremost conductor of his unusual and often bizarre operas, two of which I have seen in performance.

He has had a long association with Sadlers Wells in London (later English National Opera. He was the First conductor of the Hamburg Opera for three years and has been a regular conductor of operas in London’s Royal Opera House. He regularly conducts at The Metropolitan Opera, New York, Welsh National Opera and San Francisco Opera. He has also pioneered the study and practical realisation of period performance techniques, as with his landmark 1959 recording of Handel's "Fireworks Music" in its original wind band instrumentation, and has made many recordings with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since.

Mackerras had his 80th. birthday in 2005 and there were suitable concerts to celebrate his many achievements over the years including a performance of Verdi’s'Un Ballo in Maschera' at Covent Garden. He just goes on conducting! Last year, for example, he was conducting the Prague Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras and the London Philharmonia, whom we heard under his baton in Bristol in February of last year. That was a memorable concert which included Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Although he needed to be seated for much of the evening, he otherwise showed little sign of his age. He had the aura of a favourite uncle, smiling at both audience and orchestra as if it was his pleasure to preside over a very special occasion. It was a performance of precision and passion.

I see from a recent review that he was performing this week in Scotland, conducting an orchestra with which he is now closely associated – the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has made recordings of seven Mozart operas with them. Together they have recently recorded the last four symphonies and, responding to rave reviews, I have bought this two disc CD (308 Linn records) and am relishing the rhythmic strength and delicacy of works that, together with the piano concertos, represents for me the very best of Mozart.

B.R.