New name, new look and, with the first impressions of good sound, palpable relief. Anticipation was high, the hall jam-packed: if this were the Bristol Beacon’s future, all would be well.
The £132m Colston Hall rebuild – involving the whole fabric of the place and some of its tarnished image – has taken five years. The Bristol Beacon, symbolic of hope, reopened almost three weeks ago with a busy programme. Yet, in the eyes of many, it was as an orchestral venue that it has ultimately to be judged. Bristol Youth Orchestra had given the first full orchestra performance, but the honour of launching the 2023/24 orchestral season fell to the hall’s orchestra-in-residence, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits. The welcome they got was heartfelt and it’s an irony that, having established himself as such a popular figure with the Bristol audience, this is now the final year of Karabits’ tenure as their chief conductor. He seemed to be on fire on the podium here.
