SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

The Christmas Concert Season in Manchester:  A pre-festive round up by Robert Farr( RJF)


Musical life in what the City Fathers claim to be a place second only to London,  proceeds throughout most of the year at what might be termed a leisurely pace. The major focus for classical music is on the magnificent Bridgewater Hall which serves as the home base for the rejuvenated Hallé Orchestra. The Hall also hosts its own International Season and visits from the BBC Philharmonic. Also appreciated during the year, are the varied musical offerings at the Royal Northern College of Music located in the largest University complex in Europe. The Christmas Season brings a rapid increase in musical activity however, particularly at the Bridgewater, with a Raymond Gubbay Festival Season of goodies and the Hallé offering an increase in appropriate seasonal activity.

The season gets under way on December 1^st with the Hallé performing Verdi’s Requiem under Mark Elder after a performance in London two days before. With Edward Downes restricting his activities these days, Elder is our foremost Verdian and with an international array of soloists and the Hallé choir in full voice, this promises to be a memorable evening and start to the season. On the 6^th the orchestra, under Martyn Brabbins present a programme of music by Prokofiev and Sally Beamish and concluding with Vaughan Williams’Sinfonia Antartica. The BBC Phil take over the Bridgewater on Saturday 8^th with a programme entitled An English Journey which includes  Bax’s Tintagel, Walton’s Violin Concerto played by Tasmin Little and Elgar’s Symphony No 2.

On the night following Verdi’s Requiem the Gubbay Christmas Festival Season opens with a too rare opportunity to hear the mighty Bridgewater organ, together with the Manchester Concert Orchestra. The programme includes Bach’s Toccata and Fugue inn D Minor, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony as well as Widor’s Toccata and other pieces. On December the 28^th a programme entitled the Midas Touch  arranged by the Bridgewater Hall itself promotes a family organ programme of music from the Bond films. At £10 for adults and children half price this sounds like a bargain.

Back to the beginning of the month, on December 3^rd the Salvation Army start the annual carol concert round and including a children’s nativity. The Gubbay Christmas Festival continues on  the 7^th with Messiah by Candlelight featuring the Mozart Festival Orchestra in full 18^th Century costume and  follows up its Christmas theme on the 17^th with Carols by Candlelight, again with full costumes involved and performing well known music by Bach, Handel, Pachelbel and Mozart. A concert titled White Christmas on the 18^th with choir and soloists has all the seasonal favourites from Santa Claus is Coming to Town, through Tannenbaum, Mary’s Boy Child and Silent Night to the present day.

On the 22^nd under the title The Glory of Christmas and with the Manchester Concert Orchestra under Robert Dean, choir, kinder choir, tenor and trumpet soloists a more wholly classical programme includes Bach, Handel, Haydn and Berlioz as well as Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Adam’s Holy Night; this concert starts at 2.0pm. The Gubbay Festival finishes its Christmas theme, but not its programme, with a Christmas Carol Singalong for all the family to sing, clap stamp or whatever, on December 24^th with performances at 2.00pm and 5.30pm. The noise at the Bridgewater on that occasion will not match the titled Classical Spectacular that the Gubbay organisation have laid on at the Manchester Evening News Arena on December 8^th. With the Hallé Orchestra playing the music, soloists, lights, lasers and spectacle, the programme includes popular waltzes, arias and choruses as well as Rule Britannia, and Land of Hope and Glory before concluding with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with canons and indoor fireworks. Some spectacle!

Back at the Bridgewater, the Hallé, doubtless in more sedate form under Roy Goodman, perform the Messiah on December 9^th. A popular programme on Saturday 15^th repeated on the 20^th is titled The Best Christmas Singalong Ever! and includes Sleigh Ride, Dance of the Sugar PlumFairy, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and many others complete with the words in the programme. Sunday 17^th has  the Hallé’s Christmas Countdown, intended for all the family and this is followed on December 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd by the orchestra's own Carol Concerts, each starting at 7.30pm.

December would not be the same without   Royal Northern College  opera production and on December 4^th they offer their first opera of the year in the form of Mozart’s evergreen Marriage of Figaro. Directed by Stefan Janski, the College productions are always popular  and there is no better place for talent spotting. There are further performances of Figaro on December 6^th, 12^th, and 15^th with a matinee on Sunday the 9^th. The RNCM box office is open daily, except Sunday, from 11am; tel 0161 907 5555.

There are more musical riches from the Gubbay Festival Season after Christmas with a Russian Spectacular on December 27^th, a Last Night of the Christmas Proms on the same day and an Opera Gala Night on the 28^th.  January starts with a New Years Day Gala of many favourites including Finlandia, The Blue Danube Waltz as well as Largo al factotum and the Pearl Fisher’s duet in an extensive programme. A Strauss Gala follows on January 6^th with performances at 3.00pm and 7.30pm and is in turn followed by performances of The Sleeping Beauty by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia on January 7^th - 9^th.  A Glen Miller evening on the 12^th and The Magic of Gilbert and Sullivan on January 12^th conclude the rich fare of the Festival Season.

After A Viennese New Year Spectacular on January 5^th conducted by John Wilson, the Hallé resumes its normal cycle of programmes with Mark Elder on the rostrum on 17^th and 20^th.  The month concludes with the Hallé 150^th anniversary spectacular on January 28^th presented by Dame Janet Baker. Meanwhile,  the Bridgewater Hall’s own promotions include pianist Lang Lang in a varied programme of Schubert, Bartòk, Debussy and Chopin on January 21^st followed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Marek Janowski.  Nikolai Lugansky plays Mozart’s ever-popular piano concerto No. 21 in C, K467 and this  is followed by Bruckner’s symphony No 5.

With such varied and exciting musical fare this Christmas and New Year, music lovers in  Manchester and its wider region need not fear the usual television repeats. All they need do is to shake off torpidity and head for  the Bridgewater Hall. Given its central location, they can even fit in the January sales on the way. Whether the goodies in the shops will be as exciting and varied as what this concert season promises,  remains to be seen, although the sales seem to be starting ever earlier.

The Bridgewater Hall  Box Office is open daily from 10.am until 8.0.pm except Sundays when the hours are noon until 6.0pm. Bookings can also be made online at www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk

Robert J Farr

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