Page 50 - Final_CBSO's 100th Birthday Celebration

Seen and Heard International

6 September 2020

The City of Birmingham Symphony

Orchestra celebrates its centenary

– and looks to the future

06/09/2020 by JQuinn

United Kingdom CBSO Centenary Concert – Schumann, Elgar, Saint-Saёns,
Hannah Kendall, A.R. Rahman, Stravinsky: Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Roopa Panesar
(sitar), Adrian Lester (presenter), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon
Rattle (conductor). Streamed live on the CBSO YouTube and Facebook channels from
PRG’s Live Stage Studio, Longbridge, Birmingham. 5.9.2020. (JQ)

Schumann – Genoveva – Overture
Elgar – Serenade for Strings
Saint-Saёns – Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor
Hannah Kendall – The Spark Catchers (2017)
A.R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire Suite
Stravinsky – The Firebird – Suite (1919)

On Sunday 5 September 1920, at 7pm, Appleby Mathews, founding conductor of the City of
Birmingham Orchestra, began the orchestra’s inaugural concert. Precisely 100 years later, the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was able to mark the centenary with a concert. I
use the words ‘was able’ very deliberately because, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the
orchestra has not been able to play in public since March and it was only with a huge amount
of work, imagination and flexibility from everyone involved that this event took place at all.
The orchestra’s very first concert took place in the city’s Theatre Royal. The original plan