Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Tuesday 11 November 2025, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.

Photo Credit: Astrid Ackermann.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Tuesday 11 November 2025,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.

Robert Schumann – Symphony No 2 in C major, Op 61

Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird

“A warm welcome back to Birmingham for a great conductor with a brilliant orchestra.”

It truly was an absolute treat to have Sir Simon Rattle back at Symphony Hall, particularly for us old-timers. It was Sir Simon who rescued the CBSO from the doldrums during the 1980s and 1990s, and he who persuaded Birmingham City Council to place a radically new concert hall at the centre of its cultural regeneration policy. So, his status as a local hero was reflected by a sell-out audience and the warmth of the reception before he had even conducted a single note.

Schumann’s Symphony No 2 is one of those well-crafted, muscular Germanic works which are probably bread-and-butter to an orchestra like the Bavarian Radio Symphony. Certainly, it showcased a rich and beautifully integrated string sound, and an instinctively tight sense of ensemble from the band as a whole.

Orchestra and conductor are still relatively new to one another, but both projected rapport and a deep mutual understanding. Sir Simon’s reading made great play of the build and release of tension to create drama and narrative in the outer movements, and he also found ample room for attention to detail. The Scherzo shimmered with vivacity.

But it was the 2nd movement, the noble Adagio, where rehearsal time has clearly been lavished. Rattle’s reading worked by highlighting - without over-playing - the contrast Schumann creates between classical, almost austere woodwind passages, and lush, yearning, deeply romantic episodes for the strings. The effect was heartbreaking.

There was a particular pianissimo passage where it was nigh on impossible to enumerate the number of PP’s involved! Here, the orchestra presented one of the quietest and, quite simply, most exquisite moments of orchestral playing I have ever heard.

It is easy to see why Sir Simon chose Stravinsky’s Firebird as one of the works in Symphony Hall’s inaugural concert. If you want to show off what an acoustic can do, The Firebird, with its vast variety of colour and tonal contrasts, is the piece to do just that. It is also an ideal piece to highlight the skill and virtuosity of an orchestra, and many of its individual players.

Presenting ballets in their entirety in the concert hall can be risky in term of keeping the audience’s attention. There is, inevitably, a lot of ‘waiting for stuff to happen’: ie. passages of descriptive dumbshow, followed by much running around in tights.

Not here. Sir Simon guided us through the rather slow opening movements, skilfully creating atmosphere and building tension. The spotlight moved from soloist to soloist, section to section. The orchestra perfectly seasoned and balanced the flavours in Stravinsky’s complex array of textural combinations.

As a result, the final cluster of more well-known movements toward the end of the ballet arrived on the back of a well-established narrative argument. And they carried all the more dramatic punch for this. A really outstanding performance. Please, both conductor and orchestra, come back to Symphony Hall soon.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor – Sir Simon Rattle