City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - February

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are playing Butterworth Hall on Thursday 25 February 2027, with Kazuki Yamada conducting. It's part of the Orchestral Series 26/27, and the night is built around a Beethoven double bill: Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 5.

The Fourth is the lighter of the two, from Beethoven's middle period, and still carries a bit of Haydn's influence in it. The Fifth is the one everyone knows, one of the most famous classical works there is, and it's built around that four-note opening that leads into something heroic and victorious. The two were developed alongside each other, so hearing them in the same evening lets you see two very different sides of the same period of his life.

Closing the night is Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, with Matilda Lloyd on the trumpet. BBC Music Magazine called her a 'trumpeter extraordinaire', and she's the one taking the lead on this one. Kazuki Yamada, the CBSO's Music Director, is conducting the whole thing.

If you want a bit more context before the music starts, there's a pre-concert talk in the Studio. The concert itself runs for two hours, including an interval, and starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £47.50, with a student and under-26s price of £15.50, and if you're bringing a group of ten or more, you get one ticket free.