Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra
Theatre Severn
Sunday 25th June 2023
To sit in front of a Philharmonic waiting ready to play is like sitting in front of a beautiful well-tuned engine ticking over, idling but ready to spring into top gear at any time and zoom away. The only thing it’s missing is the driver. But with applause from the awaiting crowd the driver arrived in his racing tailcoat and white gloves and we’re on the starting grid and away we go. The power of an orchestra this size is simply thrilling and exhilarating when you hear it going full pelt.
The 2023 tour is based on 2001 A Space Odyssey, playing music from that film, at the same time demonstrating just how much work goes into the incidental music of a movie. To see a full orchestra at work is such an impressive sight that even this reviewer finds it difficult to find the right words to describe the experience that has been put together by our local Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.
But I shall start with conductor Michael Lloyd he was the maestro. In complete control he led the assembled strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion, consummately and expertly through the score. With the occasional aside to the audience he took us on a journey through the movie and beyond. From classical pieces to newer more experimental works the orchestra played on. The experimental work wasn’t as wholesome in one’s opinion, and a couple of pieces were difficult to follow. If a thing isn’t rhythmic or carrying an over riding melody as the theme, then the music can become a little more difficult to follow and that isn’t as satisfying as hearing a tune that one knows. But hearing how a full orchestra constructs the music and delivers it bang on time is an incredible thing to see, and whilst music is for listening to one certainly gets something out seeing the under the bonnet and watching the engine driving the show on.
Note perfect the Birmingham Philharmonic are a tour de-force and so impressive to see and to hear. With just a hint of technicality, the lights reflected moods and themes, the show was entirely about the BPO and how well they can take a score and turn it uniquely into theirs.
One finds sometimes, people get deterred from watching an orchestra; some would claim it’s merely a cerebral high brow exercise. This reviewer argues that the classics are the spine of all our entertainment and the respect that one sees being offered with profligacy, is more than earned.
Theatre Severn are to be congratulated for bringing every aspect of the arts to the people of Shrewsbury and as long as it does so, then long may it last. A great afternoon was spent. Well done BPO.
This is a Five-star review.
Sofia Lewis
Sofia is a successful playwright living in Shrewsbury. After graduating from Wolverhampton University in theatre. Sofia went on to become an actor and film maker. Her first play was published in 2015 and her plays have been seen all around the world. She is also the instigator of the popular concerts, The Sound Of Shrewsbury Folk. She has been writing with loveshrewsbury for 13 years and loves Theatre Severn and all she sees there.
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