Page 27 - Final_CBSO's 100th Birthday Celebration

30 BIRMINGHAM POST THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

music

‘This will be the biggest orchestra

heard or seen in UK since March’

The CBSO are celebrating their centenary by swapping
Symphony Hall for a car warehouse. ChrIstopher

Morley talks to chief executive Stephen Maddock and

special guest, the returning Sir Simon Rattle

t will be a strange experience for members And the icing on the cake is that Sir Simon
of the City of Birmingham Symphony Rattle will be returning to the podium to
Orchestra when they assemble on Saturday conduct the orchestra of which he was music
for their first live performance since director for 18 years, raising it to the heights of
Ilockdown in March. worldwide awareness.
There will be no audience, no reviewers, and Other works on the programme are Schu-
the comforts and acoustic wonders of Sym- mann’s Genoveva Overture, Elgar’s Serenade
phony Hall will seem very far removed from the for Strings, a new piece by Hannah Kendall, the
car warehouse in Longbridge – once the heart Spark Catchers, and the 1919 Suite from
of Birmingham’s motorland – where the event Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet.
is going to happen. Pre-filmed video interviews with past and
And the players will be socially distanced, present music directors will explore what it
two metres apart. No cosy desk-sharing means to be part of the CBSO Family, as will
between string-partners, no synchronised interviews with musicians, supporters, young
breathing between woodwind, no quips people involved in the orchestra’s Learning and
muttered along the brass phalanx. Perhaps the Engagement programme, and other special
percussionists will be the least discomfited per- guests who have helped contribute to the
formers, as they are used to scattering about in CBSO’s great history.
splendid isolation. The event will mark the start of the public
Rehearsals at the CBSO Centre have had to launch of an ambitious £12.5m fundraising
be split, half the orchestra at a time, and campaign, The Sound of the Future, designed
Michael Seal, preparing the CBSO for the to ensure the orchestra’s recovery post-Covid
performance, has tweeted how much the and drive its longer-term renewal for its second
unusual movements of conducting these century. It will be streamed on the CBSO’s
distanced performers has put a strain on his Youtube and Facebook Channels, free until the
right arm. I have witnessed that happening end of September.
with amateur conductors in normal circum- CBSO chief executive Stephen Maddock is
stances; for it to be afflicting such an experi- realistic about the constraints of the enterprise.
enced conductor as Seal is quite significant. “Alas we have no guests at all at the actual
This will not be the way the CBSO was filming because of the strict Covid require-
planning to celebrate the exact centenary of its ments of the venue and crew etc. It wouldn’t
first-ever public performance as the City of be much of an experience actually – much of
Birmingham Orchestra (at the Theatre Royal, the most interesting material is on videos
Birmingham, Appleby Matthews conducting) between the pieces which you wouldn’t see
but all the stops have been pulled out to make there, the presenter will be talking to camera
this jamboree happen. It will celebrate the not to any audience, and the acoustic is by no
CBSO’s long history and look to the future means that of a concert hall (it will sound
through a mixture of live music, pre-filmed marvellous online thanks to the wonders of
interviews and projected imagery. digital technology!). So watching it from home
The Birmingham-born actor Adrian Lester will be a much better experience!”
will be the presenter for the ground-breaking He then goes on to tell me about the amazing
performance, which includes guest appear- planning of this event.
ances from Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Saint- “We have certainly had to achieve a great
Saens’ Cello Concerto no.1. and sitar player deal very quickly! We always planned to have a
Roopa Panesar featuring in A.R. Rahman’s Centenary Gala at Symphony Hall on Septem-
Slumdog Millionaire Suite, reflecting a brilliant ber 5, which would also have been the
concert the CBSO gave of the composer’s moment that the hall’s foyers, newly enlarged Birmingham actorAdrian Lester will present the ground-breaking CBSO concert from Longbridge
music a few seasons ago. reopened, after its capital project. That project
got delayed by Covid, and until very recently it Sutton Park, and events such as Birmingham “Sheku Kanneh-Mason is one of our
didn’t look like audiences would be allowed at Weekender. Craig Bush (takt Productions) has favourite soloists, and had always been held for
live events at all by then. But we couldn’t let been creating some amazing video content to this date. He suggested the Saint-Saens
this red letter date in the CBSO’s history go past tell the story of the CBSO and also go on the big concerto, which is also a nice connection with
without a celebration, so we hatched the idea screen that will be above the orchestra. The Birmingham as the composer visited the
of going to a completely different space where team at PRG warehouse have been outstand- triennial Music Festival here in 1879, and the
It is more than a little we could have a big orchestra spread out and ing, and we have hired one of the most CBSO has been playing this piece since 1922.
“That first concert 100 years ago started with
surreal that we can all go stream the resulting performances. experienced tV directors of orchestral music, music by a living composer (one of our
Jonathan Haswell, to direct.”
“Since deciding to go ahead at the end of
to the pub in the UK, but June, it has been a huge team effort, unlike Stephen explains the selection of the works founding fathers, Granville Bantock) so we
to attend a piano recital is anything we have ever done before. We have in the programme. wanted to have something recent – Hannah
Kendall’s The Spark Catchers fits the bill
“Everything is there for a reason – of course!
been working with the brilliant Caroline Davis
much too dangerous (OPUS) and John Adkins (JA Productions), who The Elgar Serenade came first, because that perfectly, as it is inspired by Lemn Sissay’s
are very experienced in this kind of unusual was in the very first concert 100 years ago to the poem about 19th century factory workers – and
Sir Simon Rattle event – they have produced our concerts at day. Birmingham had a lot of those!