Stravinsky's Rite of Spring 3D Performance

I went to this last night at Symphony Hall - this (and the image) are from the flyer:  "The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and extraordinary dancer Julia Mach perform Stravinsky's primeval Rite of Spring live, while digital wizardry interacts with them in an astonishing interplay between reality and fantasy, translating real-time computer-generated stereoscopic projections into a virtual reality space".

It was really amazing - the music, the dancing and the computer manipulation ....

Symphony Hall in Birmingham

Went with some friends on 25 March to Symphony Hall.  "The combination of Valery Gergiev, the London Symphony Orchestra and Mahler have wowed audiences and had critics reaching for superlatives. ‘Raw energy and white hot climaxes’ is how The Guardian described their revelatory performances. Gergiev turns his attention to the Seventh Symphony: an epic journey from darkness to overwhelming joyous affirmation, taking in two eerie and fantastical night-music movements along the way".  I've not really connected with Mahler before but Gergiev's conducting which we could see very clearly from the choir, and the wonderful playing of LSO really opened up a new area for me ... luckily the Symphony Hall is running the Birmingham Mahler Cycle through this season as part of the International Concert Series so I should be able to pick up tickets for ongoing performances.

Music

Last night I went with some friends to see the great, the fantastic Courtney Pine at Birmingham Town Hall.  Take a look at his website http://www.courtneypine.co.uk/ where you get a taste of his new album Europa.  Wonderful line up of musicians - and I do like the way that he is so generous to them giving them their opportunity to play and thrill the audience. 

I came across Me'sha Bryan http://www.meshabryan.com/ when I worked at Wolverhampton Grammar School in the late 1990s and she was one of the very talented students.  I was delighted to see (in the school mag) that she had fulfilled her school dream of becoming a professional singer/songwriter.  She's been on tour with Bryan Ferry and is currently recording a CD - I can't wait for it to come out.