The Hallé

Bridgewater Hall
Saturday 1st March

Tonight saw two ambitious and completely contrasting performances of Mozart’s Gran Partita for thirteen wind players, and Stravinsky’s Firebird.

The Hallé tag the idea of coupling Mozart and Stravinsky as a “surprisingly good match”, but this does not come across in the performance. The typical Mozart part writing comes across professionally and passionately, with a few tuning problems not being too much of a distraction; but the power and excitement of the Stravinsky puts Mozart’s light and stately effort to shame.

These unusual programmes by the Hallé are coming somewhat of a tradition – as is the length of them. Both pieces weighing in at 45 minutes, it was a long evening. There could have been alternatives however, especially with Firebird. Without the addition of a ballet, maybe a shorter Firebird suite, designed for just an orchestra performance, would have been more appropriate. No member of the audience that I could see was totally alert for the duration.

And that is the problem. Classical concerts are a great cultural experience, one that students could easily enjoy and learn from now and then. But the length and style of these Hallé programmes seem to be doing their best to put students off, with the majority of watchers being the other side of 50. With a modern alternative to the Mozart, possibly something from the mid twentieth century, alongside a shorter Firebird, this concert would have been a big success. There were a few tuning and split note problems in the horns, but as it was, the music was energetically performed and mostly the rich colour and exquisiteness of Stravinsky was expertly portrayed.

6/10