In 1946 the City of Birmingham Orchestra, as it was then called, premiered a symphony by one of its own players, the young oboist and composer Ruth Gipps. 75 years later, the CBSO and its
outgoing Music Director Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla give the belated Proms premiere of that same symphony. Another work new to the Proms is Thomas Adès’s "The Exterminating Angel Symphony", commissioned by the CBSO for its centenary and premiered in July this year. Adès has been a familiar presence at the Proms as both a composer and performer since the London premiere of his "...but all shall be well" in 1995. This latest work, based on material from his critically acclaimed third opera, received its Proms premiere tonight. Swapping the novel for the familiar, we round off the evening with a performance of Brahms’s Third Symphony. The critic Eduard Hanslick pronounced it, in the light of Brahms’s previous symphonies, ‘artistically the most nearly perfect. It is more compactly made, more transparent in detail, more plastic in the main themes.’