Performer: Ex Cathedra

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.