City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Michael Seal                                    conductor
Marie-Christine Zupancic            flute
Katherine Thomas                         harp

Britten                                               The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Mozart                                              Flute and Harp Concerto
Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel)                  Pictures at an Exhibition

For a showcase of all the colours in an orchestra’s palette, this CBSO concert is a great place to start. Benjamin Britten’s famous orchestral guide began life in 1945 as the soundtrack to an instructional film, but its pitch perfect spotlighting of each instrument, all based around Henry Purcell’s Rondeau from the play Abdelazar, has never dated. On a more intimate scale, Mozart’s much-loved Flute and Harp Concerto gives two CBSO Principal players a chance to shine. Composed in 1778 for the flute-playing Duke of Guines and his harpist daughter, it wasn’t exactly Mozart’s most cherished commission, as he admitted to disliking both solo instruments. Nonetheless he delivered it in style, its graceful interplay showing Mozart at his most charming and lyrical.

Mussorgky’s Pictures at an Exhibition began life as a finger-crunching solo piano piece, written in tribute to his artist friend Viktor Hartmann, whose memorial exhibition the composer had viewed in 1874. It became a concert hall classic in Maurice Ravel’s peerless 1922 orchestration, which added lustre to Mussorgsky’s gallery of vivid portraits and scenes, from a grotesque gnome and squabbling children to a lumbering ox cart and the legendary Russian witch, Baba Yaga. Finally, peeling bells and blazing brass summon a spectacular procession through the Great Gate of Kiev.

Free pre-concert talk, 6.20pm in the auditorium: Michael Seal in conversation.