A Valentines Day special, collaboration with Halle Youth Orchestra and Pops Espana in February’s programme
February looks set to be an outstanding month for music lovers with a series of concerts by the Halle at Bridgewater Hall including a spectacular Valentine’s event, sponsored by Tiffany & Co, sure to be a hit with other-halves and a performance by the Halle with the Halle Youth Orchestra.
Thursday 5 February, 7.30pm
Pops: España
Chabrier Rhapsody: España
Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez
Falla The Three Cornered Hat: Three Dances from Suite No.2
Bizet Carmen: selection
Ravel Bolero
Jamie Phillips conducts and Xuefei Yang is featured on guitar as The Halle’s ever popular Pops series performs Ravel’s magnificent Bolero and a selection from Bizet’s Carmen amongst other pieces.
Tickets from £19 (including £2 booking fee)
PwC under 26 tickets available
Friday 6 February, 6.45pm
Hallé and Hallé Youth Orchestra
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances (open rehearsal and performance)
Jamie Phillips conducts this special event, which blends youth and experience as the Hallé Youth Orchestra and the Hallé join forces for Rachmaninov’s final work, his scintillating Symphonic Dances. In the first half, Hallé Assistant Conductor Jamie Phillips puts the players through their paces in an open rehearsal – a fascinating insight into the workings of an orchestra – while in the second half he conducts a complete performance of this multifaceted and technically-demanding orchestral masterpiece.
£12, £9.50 concessions, £5 for under 5s/those in full-time education (including £2 booking fee)
Thursday 12 February, 7.30pm
Thursday Series
PRE-CONCERT EVENT AT 6.30PM
Grieg Peer Gynt: selection 21‘
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 29′
Nielsen Symphony No.3, ‘Sinfonia espansiva’ 39′
Nikolaj Znaider conducts as Jiam Wang (cello), Katherine Watson (soprano) and Garry Griffiths (baritone) are featured. Grieg actually disliked Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, but for a production of the play he composed some of his most inspired and best-known music, including ‘Morning Mood’, ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ and some delectable songs for soprano and baritone. Shostakovich’s highly personal First Cello Concerto was dedicated to Rostropovich, the legendary Russian cellist who barely noticed the work’s ferocious technical demands on the soloist! Rest assured, the distinguished Chinese cellist Jian Wang will more than rise to the challenge. After the interval, Nikolaj Znaider conducts his compatriot Carl Nielsen’s ‘Sinfonia espansiva’, one of the Dane’s most genial and optimistic creations. It opens with an incredible burst of energy – a single note repeated twenty-six times – while the second movement features wordless vocal lines that weave beautifully in and out of the orchestral texture.
Tickets from £13 (including £2 booking fee)
PwC under 26 tickets available
£3 student tickets available
Saturday 14 February, 7.30pm
Pops: Valentine’s Day Concert
THE PROGRAMME INCLUDES:
West Side Story: Overture Bernstein
Babes in Arms: My Funny Valentine Rodgers & Hart
Salut d’amour Elgar
Carousel: If I Loved You Rodgers & Hammerstein
I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square Sherwin & Strachey
Toy Story: When She Loved Me Randy Newman
Show Boat: Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man Kern
Endless Love Lionel Richie
Girl Crazy: Overture Gershwin
Titanic: My Heart Will Go On James Horner
The Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight Elton John
The Power of Love Jennifer Rush
Total Eclipse of the Heart Jim Steinman
Swing Time: The Way You Look Tonight Kern
Stephen Bell conducts whilst vocalists Anna-Jane Casey and Graham Bickley romance the audience in this Valentine’s Day special featuring musicals and popular songs, including chart-toppers.
Tickets from £19 (including £2 booking fee)
PwC under 26 tickets available
Thursday 19 February, 7.30pm
Thursday Series
PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO PRE-CONCERT EVENT
Brahms Tragic Overture 15′
Beethoven Symphony No.4 32′
Haydn Nelson Mass 45’
Sir Mark Elder conducts the Nelson Mass, a late, great work of Haydn’s, widely regarded as one the composer’s greatest achievements. Originally conceived as a response to Napoleon’s aggressive and acquisitive foreign policy, it gained its nickname after Admiral Nelson defeated the French navy at the famous Battle of the Nile. It is an experience not to be missed. Brahms’s turbulent Tragic Overture is the melancholy alter-ego of his jovial Academic Festival Overture, a piece Sir Mark conducts on 16 April. The former is a powerful, dramatic work that could almost be the first movement of a symphony. After this we hear Beethoven’s exuberant Fourth Symphony. For Sir Mark and the Hallé this high-spirited work has become something of a party piece that never fails to wow audiences both here and all over the world. The performance will also include the Halle Choir and Halle Youth Choir.
Tickets from £13 (including £2 booking fee)
PwC under 26 tickets available
£3 student tickets available
Sunday 22 February, 7.30pm
Wednesday 25 February, 2.15pm
Thursday 26 February, 7.30pm
Opus One Concerts
Mendelssohn Overture: The Fair Melusine 10′
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola K.364 30′
Beethoven Symphony No.5 34′
Thomas Zehetmair returns to Manchester in the dual role of conductor and soloist. Mendelssohn’s lovely The Fair Melusine is a watery affair that influenced Wagner in his own rippling prelude to Das Rheingold. Zehetmair then exchanges baton for violin bow and joins viola player Ruth Killius for Mozart’s inspired and inspiring Sinfonia Concertante K364. Mozart was a viola player himself and throughout the piece the two instruments are dealt a scrupulously even hand as they engage in a musical dialogue of quite exquisite beauty. The work’s slow movement is one of the most moving ever written. And finally Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony: in the words of the great author E.M. Forster, ‘the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.’
Tickets from £13 (including £2 booking fee)
PwC under 26 tickets available
£3 student tickets available for the Wednesday matinee and Sunday
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