Musical Destinations
England’s second biggest city boasts a classical music scene whose vibrance and inclusivity is matched by few others, says Richard Bratby
Richard Bratby on Birmingham’s musical offerings
It’s my first night out in Birmingham for a while, and I’m in an abandoned dance hall, three feet away from a rat. Not the most persuasive advertisement for a city break, perhaps – except this rat is six feet tall and is singing Shostakovich. It’s dark, it’s crowded, but somewhere above my head, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is going full blast. As the crowd surges, I move with it: because a brass band, wearing tattered wedding dresses, is about to come crashing through.
OK, Birmingham Opera Company’s (BOC) 2019 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk isn’t entirely typical of Birmingham’s musical life. But only because it isn’t typical of anywhere. Under the direction of Graham Vick, BOC stages radical operatic productions in derelict urban venues (they’ve done Monteverdi on an ice rink and Stockhausen in a chemical warehouse) and challenges the audience to become part of the drama. In other cities, you pay to watch productions by Vick. In Birmingham, you’re actually directed by him. It’s not a BOC night out until Vick himself has shoved you out of the path of some huge, rolling piece of scenery. And you’ll never see a more committed or diverse opera company – or audience.
That, in itself, feels like something that could only really happen in Birmingham. ‘The whole globe is focused in this city,’ says Mirga Gra inyt -tyla, music director of the CBSO. ‘That’s incredibly enriching.’ Attend a CBSO concert in Symphony Hall, and you’ll experience it for yourself. The hall’s swaggering architecture, pristine acoustic and gleaming chrome-andcrimson décor is a potent symbol of the city’s cultural rebirth in the 1980s – a surge of collective energy and civic pride that
stemmed directly from the international impact of the CBSO under Simon Rattle.
In Birmingham, that buzz is still very real – and if you hear the CBSO playing to a home crowd, especially under Gra inyt tyla, you’ll sense the enthusiasm and loyalty of the audience before a note has been played. It’s the same loyalty that sustains Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – founded by CBSO players in the late 1980s but now fully autonomous and presenting colourfully imagined programmes of contemporary classics and new commissions at CBSO Centre, the orchestra’s rehearsal hall and chamber music venue on Berkeley Street.
And it’s the same optimism that drove the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s recent move to a futuristic new campus in the city’s Eastside: just across the road from the planned terminus of HS2. Under principal Julian Lloyd Webber, the Conservatoire presents youthful music-making of irresistible energy, and its concerts are open to all. It’s also the Birmingham base for the Orchestra of the Swan and houses Birmingham’s first purpose-built jazz club as well as a bar selling Lloyd Webber’s personal choice of real ales. (As a musician himself, he understands priorities).
These are Birmingham’s headline acts, and they’re all likely to take a leading role when the city hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2022. But there are some quieter musical surprises, too. Begin with the Town Hall, a replica Greek temple with an illustrious history (see right). City organist Thomas Trotter’s regular lunchtime recitals on the Hall’s 1834 William Hill instrument follow in a 186-year tradition. Meanwhile, amidst the Edwardian towers and leafy avenues of the University of Birmingham sits the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, whose Art Deco auditorium is effectively the Wigmore Hall of the
Midlands. But it’s not all chamber music and lieder: the Barber’s summer opera has a tradition of rediscovering baroque jewels. This is where Janet Baker revived Handel’s Orlando in 1966; Porpora’s L’agrippina recently received the same treatment.
Or come to Birmingham in middecember, when New Street is jammed with all the noise, colour and sizzling frankfurters of Europe’s largest Christmas market. Head for St Paul’s Church in the Jewellery Quarter, where Jeffrey Skidmore’s chamber choir Ex Cathedra presents a candlelit concert like no other. Audience members share mince pies and flasks of mulled wine; the atmosphere is rapt, but also relaxed.
The city has many excellent choirs, including the Birmingham Bach Choir, and Ex Cathedra performs all year round. Yet this event has become a particular treat for local music lovers; though it’s one that they’re happy to share. ‘Birmingham surprised me,’ says Grazinyte-tyla. ‘It’s so forward looking; and the openness and curiosity – that’s a wonderful foundation on which to make music.’ It’s not bad for listening to it, either.
Further info: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra cbso.co.uk
‘The whole globe is focused in this city – I find that incredibly enriching’