Manchester’s The Halle is performing five shows at The Bridgewater Hall in October featuring the music of Strauss, Purcell, Janacek and more.
So, what’s The Halle performing at the Bridgewater Hall in November?
Thursday 11 October, 7.30pm
R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Janáček Glagolitic Mass
Edward Gardner conductor
Sara Jakubiak soprano | Dame Felicity Palmer mezzo-soprano | Stuart Skelton tenor | James Platt bass | Hallé Choir
Ever since his tenure as the Hallé’s Assistant Conductor, Edward Gardner’s career has gone from strength to strength and he is now an international star. For the opening Thursday Series concert, he returns to conduct. Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra was inspired by the writings of the philosopher Nietzsche featuring the famous ‘sunrise’ opening. Janáček’s lean and muscular Glagolitic Mass, a setting of a ninth-century liturgical text, is one of the greatest twentieth-century choral works, a Czech masterpiece that evokes both rawness and purity. Among much else, it showcases the Bridgewater Hall organ and the extraordinary Hallé Choir.
Wednesday 17 October, 2.15pm
Thursday 18 October, 7.30pm
Sunday 21 October, 7.30pm
Purcell (orch. Manze for wind and brass) Fantasia upon one note
Dvořák Cello Concerto
Vaughan Williams A London Symphony
Andrew Manze conductor
Jian Wang cello
Two distinguished Hallé favourites team up to perform one of the greatest cello concertos. When Brahms heard Dvořák’s masterpiece for the first time he was astonished, saying he wished he could have written it himself. Packed with both melodies and virtuosity, Jian Wang will more than meet its many challenges. The music of Vaughan Williams is something of a specialism for Andrew Manze. He is a superb choice to conduct ‘A London Symphony’, one of the English composer’s most imaginative, evocative and atmospheric creations.
Thursday 25 October, 7.30pm
R. Strauss Don Quixote
Elgar Symphony No.2
Sir Mark Elder conductor
Nicholas Trygstad cello | Timothy Pooley viola
The score of Elgar’s Second Symphony is inscribed with Shelley’s words ‘Rarely, rarely comest thou, Spirit of Delight’. Accordingly, though this great Romantic symphony begins optimistically, the music yields to resignation and deep nostalgia for past times. It is an enigmatic blend of the private and public sides of its composer’s persona and a work of restless and tragic beauty. In the first half, Nicholas Trygstad assumes the role of Don Quixote in Richard Strauss’s take on Cervantes’ classic novel and Timothy Pooley plays Sancho Panza, the Don’s trusty sidekick and the voice of reason. Commotion ensues as ‘the knight of the woeful countenance’ tilts his lance at windmills, assails a flock of sheep and generally gets it wrong! The full drama of Strauss’s ‘Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character’ will be described through surtitles in this highly-anticipated performance.
