≥ 2017/18 SEASON CONCERTS AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER MUSIC DIRECTOR SIR MARK ELDER The years since the falling of the Iron Curtain have perhaps increased the fascination with Russian culture where, as current events continue to demonstrate, nothing is quite what it seems. This is very much a Russian season, full of contrasts and contradictions! We begin with Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’, the great ballet that inspired 20th-century Russian music and much else, and we visit great works by earlier Russian masters, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, as well as three of Rachmaninov’s most deservedly popular works: the ‘Paganini Rhapsody’, the Third Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony. Since I heard the London premiere of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony in the early 1960s, almost 30 years after it was completed, suppressed, and lost, the capacity of this composer’s largest and most powerful symphonies to speak to us about our modern age has continued to live with me, and I find this music seems to have more and more resonance with the public as the years go by. This season, we will perform three symphonies forged in the heat of controversy and against a background of barely-credible personal danger for Shostakovich. 4 Gerard McBurney’s brilliant ‘Beyond the Score’ concept, with the help of actors and film, illuminates the extraordinary story of the contentious Fourth symphony. We will later hear the Fifth and the Eighth symphonies, each in a context intended to highlight both the personal and wider cultural associations behind these two great works. Throughout the season, great music and great performances are on offer, before we close with one of Wagner’s greatest masterpieces of music-drama. Some of our finest instrumental soloists return in concertos by Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar and Mendelssohn, and there will be new names and talents, soloists and conductors, to appreciate as always. The Hallé Choir sings Verdi, Handel, Mendelssohn and John Adams and Ryan Wigglesworth’s new orchestral work receives its Manchester premiere. At long last, we bring our acclaimed ‘Ring’ cycle to a climax with Wagner’s hero Siegfried braving the flames to awaken Brünnhilde. I can’t wait! Sir Mark Elder ≥ 17/18 SEASON AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL | 5 CONTENTS THE HALLé CONTINUES After so MANy decades to prove itself A September ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6 October .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 November ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 December ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................13 January ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 February ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................23 March .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................26 APRIL ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................27 MAy ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................30 JUNE ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................32 BOOKING information ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................36 FIxED subscription DIARy ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................42 6 THE HALLé CONTINUES After so MANy decades ‘ to prove itself A vital force. THE SUNDAy TIMES ’ ≥ 17/18 SEASON AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL | 7 TCHAIKOVSKY’S CLASSICAL ‘PATHÉTIQUE’ EXTRAVAGANZA Thursday 14 September 2017, 7.30PM Saturday 23 September 2017, 7.30PM Sunday 17 September 2017, 7.30PM Wednesday 20 September 2017, 2.15PM Copland Fanfare for the Common Man Bernstein Overture: West Side Story Rimsky-Korsakov Overture: May Night 8' Fauré Pavane Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 32' Bizet March of the Toreadors Tchaikovsky Symphony No.6, ‘Pathétique’ 44' Elgar Chanson de Matin Walton Crown Imperial Pablo González conductor • Barry Douglas piano Haydn Trumpet Concerto Rossini Overture: The Thieving Magpie In 1986 Barry Douglas launched his stellar career by winning the Gold Medal Grainger Londonderry Air at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Who better Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee to perform Tchaikovsky’s beloved First Concerto than the great Ulsterman Elgar Nimrod from the ‘Enigma’ Variations himself? Tchaikovsky’s epic symphonic swansong forms the second half of Borodin Polovtsian Dances the programme. A piece of great poignancy and mystery, it begins in dark shadows, emerges into brilliant light and then descends back into gloom – Stephen Bell conductor • Gareth Small trumpet a quite remarkable and moving musical journey. Pablo González, making his third visit to the Hallé, opens this enticing all-Russian programme with Trumpets herald the start of the Hallé’s Pops concerts with Copland’s Fanfare, Rimsky-Korsakov’s resplendent, richly melodic May Night Overture. Haydn’s famous concerto and a host of the world’s best-loved classics. Tickets from £13.50 (including booking fees) Tickets from £14 (including booking fees) 8 THE FIREBIRD Thursday 5 October 2017, 7.30PM Debussy Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune 10' Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 25' Stravinsky The Firebird (1910) 48' Under 30s can save 15% off many of Sir Mark Elder conductor • Alexander Gavrylyuk piano the Hallé’s prices. If you’re in full-time Sir Mark and the Hallé open the Thursday Series with Stravinsky’s runaway success written for Diaghilev’s second season of Ballets Russes in Paris. A education you can hear our music for as beguiling and exotic telling of a Russian fairy tale, The Firebird, takes us on a magical journey from an enchanted forest through dreams, dances and little as £5 – including fees! games, from darkness and death, to light and rebirth. The brilliant and thought-provoking Alexander Gavrylyuk is soloist in Rachmaninov’s great There are many ways to save money on Paganini Rhapsody, arguably that composer’s defining work for piano and orchestra. ‘This one’s for my agent’ Rachmaninov said of the work’s ravishing Hallé concerts. Find out more at eighteenth variation. The concert begins with Debussy’s ground-breaking orchestral prelude, based on a poem by Mallarmé in which a faun (represented www.halle.co.uk/moneysavers by a solo flute) sees two beautiful nymphs and, drifting in and out of sleep, savours the exquisite memory. Tickets from £13.50 (including booking fees) ≥ 17/18 SEASON AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL | 9 ELDER’S orchestra, now demonstrably world-class, THE strings sounding silkier THAN EVER before. THE SUNDAy TIMES 10 ≥ 17/18 SEASON AT THE BRIDGEWATER HALL | 10 THE BEST OF PICTURES AT AN BRITISH CINEMA EXHIBITION Saturday 7 October 2017, 7.30PM Thursday 12 October 2017, 7.30PM Wednesday 18 October 2017, 2.15PM The concert includes Sunday 22 October 2017, 7.30PM Spitfire Prelude and Fugue Walton Four Weddings And A Funeral: Carrie’s Bedroom Bennett Ravel Rapsodie espagnole 16' The Bridge On The River Kwai Arnold Debussy Rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra 8' Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Sherman & Sherman Ravel Boléro 16' Chariots Of Fire Vangelis Mussorgsky orch. Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition 33' Wallace and Gromit: Theme and Chase Nott James Bond Medley Barry arr. Black Sir Mark Elder conductor • Sergio Castelló López clarinet Out Of Africa