Gigs

Classical music from across the region...

BBC Symphony Orchestra Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Fri 17 June

Birmingham’s music and spoken-word scene is here celebrated in a special concert that sees the BBC Symphony Orchestra teaming up with talented local performers. Titled Beyond The Bricks Of Brum and bringing together more than 100 musicians, the one-off presentation features brandnew arrangements and compositions from Black Voices, Casey Bailey (pictured) and Sanity, with contributions also coming from Agaama, TrueMendous, John Bernard and Jasmine Gardosi. The concert is conducted by the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor, the Kyiv-born Dalia Stasevska.

Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra

Birmingham Town Hall, Sun 12 June

One of the Midlands’ best-known nonprofessional orchestras, the Birmingham Phil here presents Gustav Mahler’s purely instrumental seventh symphony. The least known and among the least performed of his symphonies, the seventh was composed after Mahler had endured a paralysing bout of writer’s block. “For two weeks I tortured myself to the point of melancholy,” he wrote to his wife, Alma. “Finally I gave up and went home, convinced that the summer would be wasted... I stepped into the boat to be rowed over [the Wörthersee, the lake on which Mahler’s summer home stood]. At the first stroke of the oars, I hit upon the theme (or rather the rhythm and the style) of the introduction to the first movement, and within four weeks, the first, third and fifth movements were completely finished!”

CBSO: Handel’s Messiah

Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Wed 8 June

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus here gets its teeth into the challenge of performing Handel’s magnificent choral masterpiece for the very first time. A work which tells the story of Christ's Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, the Messiah features the rousing Hallelujah Chorus and is one of classical music’s best-known works. Baroque specialist Richard Egarr is the conductor while Mary Bevan (pictured) showcases her skills as soprano.

Classical

Ex Cathedra: Summer Music By Candlelight

St Paul’s Church, Birmingham, Tues 21 & Wed 22 June

Jeffrey Skidmore (pictured) once again picks up the baton to conduct Birmingham’s highly rated early music ensemble, on this occasion in a concert that Ex Cathedra confidently predict will see people heading for home singing of summertime. The programmes for these annual gettogethers, presented by candlelight as dusk falls, move seamlessly from seasonal favourites to rare, rediscovered, contemporary and lighter repertoire.

Birmingham Bach Choir

St Paul’s Cathedral, Birmingham, Sat 25 June; Malvern Priory, Sat 2 July

Celebrating its centenary back in 2019, Birmingham Bach Choir is among the city's oldest and most distinguished musical groups. Here performing under the baton of Paul Spicer, the choir presents ‘a programme of British music - and Bach!’, with two of the Baroque composer’s motets presented alongside pieces by Britten, Finzi, Gibbons, Joubert and MacMillan. The organist for the concert is Martyn Rawles.