The Halle is set to perform a series of concerts at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in March including their specials, Classical Greats and Oscars for Orchestra.
Thursday 3 March, 7.30pm
Hallé Pops – Classical Greats
Programme: Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Elgar Chello Concerto; Copland Fanfare for the Common Man; Barber Adagio for Strings; Prokofiev Lieutenant Kijé: Symphonic Suite; Walton Orb and Sceptre (Coronation March 1953)
Jamie Phillips conductor | Nicholas Trygstad cello
Elgar’s Cello Concerto, perhaps the most popular, is performed here by the Hallé’s own principal cellist Nicholas Trygstad. The programme also features iconic pieces from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as Prokofiev’s wonderful Lieutenant Kijé. Originally composed for the 1933 film of the same name, the music was in immediate hit, the Troika in particular becoming a favorite with audiences all over the world.
Tickets from £20 (including £2 booking fee)
Wednesday 9 March, 2.15pm; Thursday 10 March, 7.30pm; Sunday 13 March, 7.30pm
Hallé Opus – Mendelssohn, R. Strauss and Brahms
Programme: Mendelssohn Symphony No.4, ‘Italian’; R. Strauss Horn Concerto No.1; Brahms Serenade No.2
Andrew Manze conductor | Laurence Rogers horn
Andrew Manze, a conductor of immense insight and musicianship, returns to Manchester for a delightful programme that brims with youthful vigour. The young Brahms’s lyrical Serenade No.2 gave expression to his budding love for Clara Schumann to whom he gave the score as a birthday present. Mendelssohn adored Italy and his ‘Italian Symphony’ is a joyful musical record of a holiday there. Its first movement radiates the warm glow of Mediterranean sunshine. In between these two works the Hallé’s outstanding principal horn Laurence Rogers is the soloist in Richard Strauss’s exuberant Concerto, a hugely accomplished work composed when Strauss was just eighteen.
Tickets from £13 (including £2 booking fee)
Sunday 13 March, 3pm
Hallé Youth Ensembles- Once Upon a Time…
Programme includes: Lin Marsh Once Upon a Time; Hallé Youth Orchestra; Hallé Youth Choir; Hallé Youth Training Choir; Hallé Children’s Choir
Join the joyously-talented members of the Hallé Youth Orchestra, Youth Choir, Youth Training Choir and Children’s Choir as they present a matinee of music inspired by the concept of time, of growing up and looking towards the future.
Adults £12; Consessions £9.50; Under 5s/those in full-time education £5 (all prices include a £2 booking fee)
Thursday 17 March, 7.30pm
Thursday Series – Henze, Ravel, Liszt and Beethoven
Programme: Henze The Enchanted Forest; Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Liszt Totentanz (Dance of Death); Beethoven Symphony No.5
Markus Stenz conductor | Kirill Gerstein piano
Henze’s The Enchanted Forest is an atmospheric orchestral medley adapted from the composer’s opera König Hirsch (The Stag King). Kirill Gerstein, hailed by the New York Times as ‘one of the most respected pianists of his generation’, is then the soloist in Ravel’s pulsating Concerto for the Left Hand, a work influenced by Spanish music and jazz. Liszt’s Totentanz is not to be missed – it was years ahead of its time when first performed. The fate theme reaches its glorious apotheosis in Beethoven’s legendary Fifth Symphony, with its iconic four-note ‘fate’ motif.
Pre-concert event at 6.30pm
Hear Vaughan Williams’ rarely performed Serenade to Music as the talented musicians of the Hallé Youth Choir and Hallé Youth Orchestra perform the choral version of this beautiful piece. Naomi Benn, Head of the Hallé’s Ensembles and the orchestra’s Music Director, Jamie Phillips and members of the Youth Orchestra discuss life as a young musician in Manchester. All pre-concert talks are in The Bridgewater Hall auditorium.
Tickets from £13 (including £2 booking fee)
Saturday 19 March, 7.30pm
Hallé Pops – Oscars for Orchestra
Programme includes: Schindler’s List; Robin Hood; Dances with Wolves; Gigi; Mary Poppins; Star Wars; Skyfall; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; Titanic; The Way We Were; Evergreen; Beauty and the Beast; The Wizard of Oz; and many more…
Stephen Bell conductor | Louise Dearman vocalist
Tonight, everyone gets to walk down the Hallé’s very own red carpet! By the time we celebrate the legendary nominees and winners of the Best Music Award over nine decades, all the 2016 gongs will have been handed out. The tears, the speeches, the joy of the winners and the false smiles of the losers will all be history, leaving us to revel in the magnificent scores of triumphant classics.
Tickets from £20 (including £2 booking fee)
Pictured – Louise Dearman
