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A galactic adventure at Tanglewood: Kazuki Yamada and The Planets

By Cameron Kelsall, 23 August 2025

The guest conductor pairs Holst's perennial crowd pleaser with Poulenc's Gloria, a work deeply associated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

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Lenox

24 Aug 2025

A galactic adventure at Tanglewood: Kazuki Yamada and The Planets

By Cameron Kelsall

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London

Yunchan Lim plays a starring role in the CBSO’s 20th-century icons Prom

By Leighton Jones, 01 August 2025

Adams, Rachmaninov and Berio are not three easy bedfellows, however Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra pull these strands together remarkably.

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London

03 Aug 2025

Yunchan Lim plays a starring role in the CBSO’s Prom

By Leighton Jones

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Cleveland

Kazuki Yamada balances Mozart's grace and Elgar's grandeur in Cleveland debut

By Sam Jacobson, 25 April 2025

Kazuki Yamada selects a regal Mozart piano concerto and a sprawling Elgar symphony for his Cleveland Orchestra debut.

***11

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Cleveland

28 Apr 2025

Yamada balances Mozart's grace and Elgar's grandeur in Cleveland debut

By Sam Jacobson

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Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO deliver an evening of stark contrasts at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings, 16 April 2025

A concert of French music reveals – and suffers from – contrasting styles, attitudes and coherence in works by Ravel and Poulenc.

***11

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Birmingham

17 Apr 2025

Yamada and the CBSO deliver an evening of stark contrasts

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

Emotionally-charged modernism: Mahler’s Ninth at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings, 10 April 2025

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO give a poignant, haunting performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, foreshadowed by Takemitsu’s miniature Requiem.

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Birmingham

11 Apr 2025

Emotionally-charged modernism: Mahler’s Ninth at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

From chaos to joy: Haydn’s The Creation in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings, 26 February 2025

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO and Chorus weave Baroque and Romantic allusions into Haydn’s Classical masterpiece, in a superb, at times operatic, performance at Symphony Hall.

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Birmingham

27 Feb 2025

From chaos to joy: Haydn’s The Creation in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

From effortless ease to convoluted struggle: Mozart and Bruckner in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings, 12 December 2024

The CBSO gives a vivid account of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, its structural and emotional convolution laid bare, and an athletic account of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 26 featuring Martin Helmchen.

*****

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Birmingham

13 Dec 2024

Mozart and Bruckner in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

Walton 2–0 Elgar: triumph and failure for the CBSO at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings, 04 December 2024

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO give an aimless, flabby account of Elgar’s Violin Concerto, but a rambunctious reading of Walton is filled with delirious joy.

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Birmingham

05 Dec 2024

Walton 2–0 Elgar: triumph and failure for the CBSO at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings

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New York City

Elegant Chopin from Yunchan Lim, the NY Philharmonic and Kazuki Yamada

By Susan Stempleski, 27 November 2024

Rising conductor Kazuki Yamada conducts a clear, forthright and flowing account of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony.

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New York City

29 Nov 2024

Elegant Chopin from Yunchan Lim and the NY Phil

By Susan Stempleski

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Seattle

Requiems and riddles: Seattle Symphony muses on the ultimate questions

By Thomas May, 21 November 2024

Kazuki Yamada returns to the Seattle Symphony with a pair of Requiems and a rousing Elgar Enigma.

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Seattle

23 Nov 2024

Requiems and riddles: Seattle Symphony muses on the ultimate questions

By Thomas May

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Birmingham

Joy triumphs as Kazuki Yamada enthuses Birmingham with Beethoven’s Ninth

By Robert Gainer, 19 September 2024

“Go big or go home!” A new season opens with the CBSO and Chorus giving an epic Beethoven Ninth at Birmingham's Symphony Hall.

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Birmingham

20 Sep 2024

Joy triumphs as Yamada enthuses Birmingham with Beethoven

By Robert Gainer

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London

From soft to very loud: the CBSO's superb BBC Prom with Kazuki Yamada

By Alexander Hall, 22 August 2024

A knockout performance of Sir Henry Wood's arrangement of Mussorgsky's most famous composition, coupled with refinement and sophistication elsewhere, show the CBSO at the top of its game.

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London

23 Aug 2024

Soft to very loud: the CBSO's superb BBC Prom with Yamada

By Alexander Hall

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Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO deliver an evening of restless rhapsody

By Simon Cummings, 17 January 2024

Music by Berlioz, Walton and a recent work by Dai Fujikura are each revealed to have restlessness at their cores, leading to highly different forms of energy and lyricism.

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Birmingham

18 Jan 2024

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO deliver an evening of restless rhapsody

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

Dramatic tragedy and joy at Symphony Hall in music by Shostakovich and Walton

By Simon Cummings, 16 September 2023

The CBSO and Kazuki Yamada, with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, get their new season up and running with an evening of ebullience, pain and, ultimately, happiness.

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Birmingham

17 Sep 2023

Dramatic tragedy and joy at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

By Simon Cummings

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London

Showing Orff: a rip-roaring Carmina Burana from Yamada and the CBSO

By Dominic Lowe, 27 July 2023

Psalm 150 and a collection of outrageous 13th-century texts by boisterous young clergyman collide at the Royal Albert Hall in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's Prom.

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London

29 Jul 2023

Showing Orff: a rip-roaring Carmina Burana from Yamada and the CBSO

By Dominic Lowe

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Birmingham

Not all that they seem: Britten and Elgar challenge expectations at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings, 14 June 2023

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO demonstrate the mercurial tension in Britten’s Serenade and Elgar’s First Symphony in the season finale.

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Birmingham

15 Jun 2023

Britten and Elgar challenge expectations at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings

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Birmingham

Weightless and transparent: the CBSO and Kazuki Yamada amaze in Rachmaninov

By Simon Cummings, 07 June 2023

Under Kazuki Yamada, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gives one of its finest performances in years, in a concert featuring music by Holst, Beethoven and Rachmaninov.

*****

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Birmingham

08 Jun 2023

Weightless and transparent: the CBSO amazes in Rachmaninov 2

By Simon Cummings

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Tokyo

Brahms to remember from Hisako Kawamura at Suntory Hall

By David Karlin, 13 March 2023

Hisako Kawamura shows excellence and stamina in tackling two huge concertos, while Kazuki Yamada and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony give compelling Brahms but are less convincing in Amy Beach.

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Tokyo

14 Mar 2023

Brahms to remember from Hisako Kawamura at Suntory Hall

By David Karlin

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Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO prove there is life to be found on other planets

By Robert Gainer, 01 February 2023

Kazuki Yamada returns to the CBSO with an ever-popular orchestral suite, an under-appreciated concerto, and a fabulous pianist in Alexandre Kantorow to play it.

*****

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Birmingham

02 Feb 2023

Yamada and the CBSO prove there is life to be found on other planets

By Robert Gainer

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Rome

A weighty hymn of praise at the Santa Cecilia

By Mark Pullinger, 26 November 2022

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha is the pick of the soloists in a weighty reading of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang under Kazuki Yamada. But can Schubert's Fifth withstand the same approach?

***11

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Rome

26 Nov 2022

A weighty hymn of praise at the Santa Cecilia

By Mark Pullinger

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Birmingham

Heralding a new era: exuberant Dvořák and mature Mendelssohn at Symphony Hall

By Simon Cummings, 20 September 2022

Nicola Benedetti and the CBSO under Kazuki Yamada bring impressive levels of sensitivity and honesty to Dvořák’s New World Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

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Birmingham

21 Sep 2022

Heralding a new CBSO era: exuberant Dvořák and mature Mendelssohn

By Simon Cummings

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London

Dame Ethel Smyth at the double: a rare concerto for Kazuki Yamada’s Proms debut

By Mark Pullinger, 25 July 2022

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor Designate makes a strong impression in purposeful Rachmaninov after Elena Urioste and Ben Goldscheider wave the flag for Dame Ethel Smyth.

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London

25 Jul 2022

Smyth at the double: a rare concerto for Kazuki Yamada’s Proms debut

By Mark Pullinger

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Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada states his intentions with the CBSO and Mahler

By Robert Gainer, 19 January 2022

With the help of soprano Fatma Said and a compelling programme, the incoming City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra chief conductor made good on his promise and past performances.

*****

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Birmingham

20 Jan 2022

Kazuki Yamada states his intentions with the CBSO and Mahler

By Robert Gainer

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Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO open 2021 season with a triumphant mix of light and serious

By Simon Cummings, 16 September 2021

The CBSO’s newly-announced Chief Conductor delivers a jaw-dropping season opener featuring French and Russian music full of emotional contrasts.

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Birmingham

17 Sep 2021

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO open their 2021 season triumphantly

By Simon Cummings

Birmingham

Volatility unites music by Elgar, Richard Strauss and Takemitsu in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings, 23 February 2020

The CBSO Youth Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada find connections in three works inhabiting very different worlds.

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Birmingham

24 Feb 2020

Volatility unites music by Elgar, Strauss and Takemitsu in Birmingham

By Simon Cummings

Manchester

A tale of two halves as Jess Gillam makes her Hallé debut

By Hugh Morris, 16 January 2020

Intense lyricism bridges the gap between John Adams and Rachmaninov, but debutant Kazuki Yamada struggles to link the two.

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Manchester

17 Jan 2020

A tale of two halves as Jess Gillam makes her Hallé debut

By Hugh Morris

Paris

An Afternoon with Nijinsky and Maillot's excellent Ballets de Monte-Carlo

By Alexandra Desvignes, 09 February 2019

As well as keeping the musical, choreographic and theatrical treasures of the Ballets Russes alive, En compagnie de Nijinsky reignites the company’s avant garde-ist vision.

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Paris

11 Feb 2019

An Afternoon with Nijinsky

By Alexandra Desvignes

Birmingham

Kazuki Yamada rocks Symphony Hall

By Nick John Whittle, 10 October 2018

Principal Guest Conductor Kazuki Yamada teases brilliant French sounds from the CBSO.

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Birmingham

12 Oct 2018

Kazuki Yamada rocks Symphony Hall

By Nick John Whittle

Houston

Underwhelming Lost Cello Concerto at Houston Symphony

By Sydney Boyd, 13 April 2017

In a program with Chabrier’s España and Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, the Houston Symphony ambitiously unearthed Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto, last heard at its premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 1935.

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Houston

14 Apr 2017

Underwhelming Lost Cello Concerto at Houston Symphony

By Sydney Boyd

Birmingham

Sunny Sibelius with Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO

By Katherine Dixson, 16 June 2016

Kazuki Yamada combines Japanese deference with full control of his players to lead he CBSO to fine performances of Beethoven and Sibelius, with a relatively laid back performance of the Elgar Cello concerto.

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Birmingham

17 Jun 2016

Sunny Sibelius with Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO

By Katherine Dixson

Cologne

WDR Symphonieorchester Köln takes a gamble on young talent, but Kazuki Yamada delivers

By Gavin Dixon, 06 July 2013

The WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln put its fate in the hands of the younger generation for this evening’s concert. Conductor Kazuki Yamada is only 34. The original violin soloist was to have been Lisa Batiashvili, but she pulled out and was replaced by the 22-year-old Serge Zimmermann.

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Cologne

08 Jul 2013

WDR Symphonieorchester Köln takes a gamble on young talent, but Kazuki Yamada delivers

By Gavin Dixon

Paris

Lacklustre Tchaikovsky, but brilliant Thibaudet

By Tom Hancox, 15 June 2011

The programme notes suggested that Glinka was the father of Russian nationalism. Perhaps this is the case, but his overture to his second opera, Ruslan and Ludmilla, is undeniably an Italianate work, surely influenced by his meetings with Donizetti and Bellini in 1830.

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Paris

17 Jun 2011

Lacklustre Tchaikovsky, but brilliant Thibaudet

By Tom Hancox