“City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra turns 100 this year, and is celebrating with a special live performance exactly a century since the first concert it ever gave,” writes Rosie Pentreath in Wednesday’s (8/19) Classic FM (U.K.). “On Saturday 5 September, CBSO … will perform live as a whole orchestra for the very first time since lockdown started in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The orchestra will be joined by star soloists, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, performing Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, and sitar player Roopa Panesar for A.R. Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire Suite. An audience won’t be present, but CBSO will [perform] from a warehouse big enough to allow the concert to be socially-distanced and captured on film … to enjoy online…. Music director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is on maternity leave but has left proceedings in the safe hands of the CBSO’s former music director, Sir Simon Rattle…. The concert itself [includes] historical nods in the form of works by Elgar (the CBSO’s first full symphonic performance at Birmingham Town Hall was conducted by Elgar) and Schumann, alongside optimistic looks to the future, with Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire and Hannah Kendall’s contemporary The Spark Catchers.”
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