The CBSO at 100

Centenary celebrations The CBSO is spreading its centenary celebrations over two seasons: 2019-20 and 2020-21. The current season is full of references to the orchestra’s first

100 years, and Britten’s War Requiem – still probably the single most famous work premiered by the CBSO – features prominently, conducted by Mirga Gra inyte˙ -Tyla at Symphony Hall in June. Edward Gardner, a former CBSO principal guest conductor, returns in April to conduct Elgar’s (above) The Dream of Gerontius, the work whose premiere at the 1900 Birmingham Triennial Festival set the ball rolling towards the founding of the orchestra itself.

Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony (Feb), Holst’s The Planets

(May) and light music by Sullivan, Ethel Smyth and Birmingham’s own Albert W Ketèlbey (May) will all hark back to the orchestra’s first decade. But it’s not just about the past: the CBSO is giving 20 premieres over its centenary seasons, including substantial ‘centenary commissions’ by Julian Anderson, Thomas Adès, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Raminta erk nyte˙, plus 20 short ‘encores’ by emerging young composers – which might pop up, without announcement, at any concert at all.