We take a quick look at what The Halle Orchestra has lined up at the Bridgewater Hall in February 2018.

España
Saturday 3 February 2018, 7.30pm

Bizet Carmen Suite No.1 and Habañera
Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez
Piazzolla Libertango (for guitar and strings)
Chabrier España: rhapsody for orchestra
Falla The Three Cornered Hat: Suite Nos.1 and 2
Ravel Boléro

Conductor: Gergely Madaras; Featuring Craig Ogden, guitar

Forget the damp cold winter outside and join the Hallé and Craig Ogden, who performs Rodrigo’s matchless guitar concerto, for an evening of Spanish-inspired warmth and passion.

https://soundcloud.com/thehalle/february-2017-pops-taster


Stravinsky’s Petrushka
Thursday 8 February 2018, 7.30pm

Oliver Knussen The Way to Castle Yonder
Stravinsky Petrushka
Mussorgsky orch. Shostakovich Songs and Dances of Death
Mahler Totenfeier

Conductor: Ryan Wigglesworth; Featuring: Brindley Sherratt, bass

Mussorgsky is a huge figure in Russian musical history. This concert features one of his finest works, Songs and Dances of Death, sensitively orchestrated by his admirer Shostakovich and sung by the superb Brindley Sherratt. The theme of mortality continues with a rare performance of Mahler’s breathtaking Totenfeier, a work that became the opening movement of its composer’s Second Symphony, ‘The Resurrection’. Stravinsky’s ballet score Petrushka is a wonderfully graphic affair that tells of the life, death and ghostly reappearance of its eponymous puppet hero; while Oliver Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder, music drawn from his opera Higglety, Pigglety, Pop!, starts the evening with equal poignancy, imagination and humour.

Pre-concert event 6:30pm – at The Bridgewater Hall auditorium, free to concert ticket holders

Pianist, writer and broadcaster, Peter Hill introduces the evening’s programme exploring the ballet music of Petrushka, weaving its influence through the 20th-century musical landscape.


Opera Lovers’ Night
Wednesday 14 February 2018, 7.30pm

Rossini Overture: The Barber of Seville
Catalani La Wally: Ebben? Ne andrò lontana
Puccini Tosca: Recondita armonia
Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Wedding March
Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo
Verdi Aida: Grand March
Donizetti L’elisir d’amore: Una furtiva lagrima
Bernstein West Side Story: Tonight
Massenet Thaïs: Méditation
Dvořăk Rusalka: Song to the Moon
Puccini Turandot: Nessun Dorma
Puccini La bohème: Finale to Act 1

Conductor: Stephen Bell; Featuring: Sarah Fox, soprano and Noah Stewart, tenor

This opera extravaganza features a wonderful collection of world-famous arias, duets and grand orchestral interludes. This is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and the perfect way to enjoy some of the world’s best-loved opera with two of our favourite stars.

https://soundcloud.com/thehalle/valentines-day-2018-concert-taster


Brahms’s First Piano Concerto

Wednesday 21 February 2018, 2.15pm
Thursday 22 February 2018, 7.30pm
Sunday 25 February 2018, 7.30pm

Mendelssohn – Overture: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
Beethoven – Symphony No.4
Brahms – Piano Concerto No.1

Conductor: Karina Canellakis; Featuring: Sunwook Kim, piano

Praised internationally for her technical and musical gifts, in 2016 Karina Canellakis won the prestigious Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. She is joined by Hallé favourite Sunwook Kim for Brahms’s monumental First Piano Concerto. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is now a Hallé party piece that thrills audiences wherever they play it. The programme sets sail with Mendelssohn’s evocative Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Inspired by both the poetry of Goethe and the music of Beethoven, it’s one of the greatest of all musical seascapes.

https://soundcloud.com/thehalle/february-2018-opus-taster

Image courtesy Russel Hart.