The Halle are set to perform a series of concerts in April at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, including what promises to be a stunning celebration of Quincy Jones.
We take a look at what the Halle will be showcasing to Manchester audiences:
Saturday 7 April, 7.30pm
Celebrating Quincy Jones
The concert includes:
Razzamatazz; Soul Bossa Nova; Come Fly With Me; Straighten Up and Fly Right; Hit That Jive Jack; She’s Out of My Life; Billie Jean; Ease On Down The Road; One Mint Julip; Let The Good Times Roll; In The Heat of the Night; Fly Me To The Moon; On Days Like These (The Italian Job); I Can’t Stop Loving You; Every Day I Have The Blues; The Midnight Sun Will Never Set; Ironside; I Just Found Out About Love; and more…
Conductor: Guy Barker
Featuring: Tony Momrelle, vocalist; Vanessa Haynes, vocalist
The Halle celebrates the success of the legendary composer, arranger, record producer, instrumentalist, film and television producer and actor, Quincy Jones. From his early beginnings as a talented trumpet player, with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra to becoming the most Grammy nominated artist ever, he has worked with a vast array of great artists across many genres including Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson.
Pre-concert event 6:30pm – in The Bridgewater Hall foyer, free to concert ticket holders
Tom Stott (vocals) and Jeremy Perez (piano) from the RNCM Popular Music course sets the mood for the evening’s concert with a performance in the foyer.
Thursday 12 April, 7.30pm
Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3
Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales
John Adams Harmonium
Conductor: Nicolas Collon
Featuring: Boris Giltburg, piano; Hallé Choir
The great American composer John Adams has long been associated with the Hallé. For what is effectively a choral symphony, Harmonium, he set poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson, texts that suited his vision of ‘human voices riding upon waves of rippling sound’. One of the first of Adams’ mature masterpieces, it is a remarkable experience. So too is Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, a triumph of the Romantic piano repertoire. The soloist is Boris Giltburg, described by Gramophone as ‘a truly memorable Rachmaninov interpreter’. After the concerto, Nicholas Collon directs Ravel’s delightful suite of waltzes, Valses nobles et sentimentales, all of them orchestrated in the French composer’s inimitable style.
Wednesday 18 April, 2.15pm; Thursday 19 April, 7.30pm; and Sunday 22 April, 7.30pm
Brahms’ First Symphony
Wagner Overture: The Mastersingers
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Brahms Symphony No.1
Conductor: Nicolas Collon
Featuring: Augustin Hadelich, violin
Grammy award-winning Augustin Hadelich plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, the composer’s most popular creation and a wondrous fusion of romantic lyricism and classical restraint. It is an inspired, innovative work with a lullaby-like slow movement and a brilliant finale. Brahms struggled as he wrote his First Symphony, a process that took some nineteen years, though it was well worth the wait. This uplifting masterpiece established him as the true heir and successor of his great hero Beethoven. Conducting these concerts is the inspiring Nicholas Collon. He begins with The Mastersingers Overture, a superb medley of themes from Wagner’s most warm-hearted and humorous opera.
Saturday 28 April, 7.30pm
Thrills, Chills and Spills
Including music from:
Batman Begins, Taxi Driver, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Sixth Sense, Pyscho, Jaws, North by Northwest, The Witches of Eastwick, The Hateful Eight, The Incredibles, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Eyes Wide Shut
Conductor: Stephen Bell
Featuring: Petroc Trelawny, presenter
Tense thrillers and great adventure stories have produced some of the world’s most exciting and atmospheric soundtracks. Tonight we feature some of the most iconic. You’ll never go into the water again…
Pre-concert event 6:30pm – in The Bridgewater Hall auditorium, free to concert ticket holders
Radio and television broadcaster, Petroc Trelawny, is joined in conversation by film music composer David Julyan whose scores include (amongst many more) Memento and Insomnia.
The Halle Orchestra image courtesy Russel Hart.
