The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) was founded in 1920 and gave its inaugural public concert under the baton of the composer Edward Elgar. Its legacy of principal conductors ranges from Adrian Boult up to Sakari Oramo; but it was above all the 18-year tenure of Simon Rattle (1980–98) that brought the CBSO to top rank internationally, strengthening its reputation worldwide. In 2008 the young Latvian maestro Andris Nelsons took on the mantle from these prominent forerunners. “The orchestra seemed to be electrified by Nelsons,” reported The Independent on the opening of this new era. Along with its regular concerts in Symphony Hall, the Orchestra offers jazz and chamber music series in the CBSO Centre, schedules special Lunch, Rush Hour, and Family concerts, and reaches a wide-ranging audience through programs that encompass Bach to film music. The CBSO is intensively involved with education efforts, including its collaborations with students and the community, but also through projects connected to amateur music-making. Five separate choruses have developed a rapport with the Orchestra, as has a youth orchestra that draws on the best talent of a new generation of musicians from the East and West Midlands between the ages of 14 and 21. The CBSO regularly performs at the BBC Proms in London and at the Aldeburgh Festival; the Orchestra is also frequently in demand abroad. In 2009 the ensemble traveled, for example, to Athens, Madrid, and the Berlin Music Festival; spring of 2010 included a major German tour, with concerts in ten cities. The CMSO’s Tchaikovsky CD released last year under Andris Nelsons won the German Record Critics’ Award.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on September 8, 1996 in works of Berlioz, Beethoven, Tippett, and Haydn, with Simon Rattle conducting.
May 2010