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Enhanced by bells, Ex Cathedra Jeffrey Skidmore give a low-key but highly dramatic performance of Rachmaninov’s Vespers in Birmingham Town Hall

Bradley Smith, as Evangelist, and a fine cast of soloists drove this Good Friday account of Bach’s St Matthew Passion from Ex Cathedra in Birmingham.

In performing the Vespers in the acoustically wonderful Milton Court, Jeffrey Skidmore took the imaginative decision to interleaving its movements with solo piano works, played by Steven Osborne. It proved inspirational programming.

Celebrating 20 years as Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, David Bintley brings the company to London, where Balanchine’s Serenade acts as a delicate sorbet before the excesses of Bintley’s own Carmina burana.  

Ex Cathedra's Chorus in fine voice for a "small scale" Messiah in Birmingham. 

There’s more to Brazil than nuts and football, as our reviewer discovered in an evening devoted to Brazilian Baroque, presented by Ex Cathedra. 

Tonight’s Stockhausen Prom was in equal parts sonic experience and performance.In an introduction to a performance of Gesang der Jünglinge in 2001, Stockhausen proposed that “if you close your eyes every now and then, you might even see these angels”. In a concert performance this isn’t an empty suggestion; Gesang der Jünglinge is a truly acoustic experience.

Any venue, cathedral or concert hall, that advertises a Good Friday performance of J.S. Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion is likely to sell out; even Birmingham’s vast Symphony Hall is no exception, today being full to bursting with eager parishioners making their annual pilgrimage to wallow in Bach’s all-consuming musical ministry.

Birmingham Opera Company’s production of Mittwoch aus Licht, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s six-hour sonic exploration of light, love, and the boundlessness of the human imagination, was a triumph from start to finish, and an unforgettable experience. Graham Vick’s spectacular production fostered a sense of child-like wonder that continued unabated throughout the night.