Concerts
Saturday 5 May
Elgar The Apostles 130'
Sir Mark Elder conductor
soprano to be announced | Alice Coote mezzo-soprano
Paul Groves tenor | Jacques Imbrailo baritone
bass-baritone to be announced | Brindley Sherratt bass
Hallé Choir | Hallé Youth Choir
The music of Elgar is in Sir Mark Elder’s blood. Tonight, in the company of vast choral and orchestral forces and a stellar cast of soloists, he conducts the composer’s rarely-performed masterpiece The Apostles. A work that deserves far greater recognition (some critics believe it superior to The Dream of Gerontius), its mystic choruses and its vivid orchestration are just a few of its more remarkable features. The work’s closing section – depicting Christ’s Ascension to heaven – is surely one of the most poignant ever written.
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Thursday 24 May
Shostakovich Symphony No.9 27'
Beethoven Symphony No.9, ‘Choral’ 67'
Nikolaj Znaider conductor | Klara Ek soprano | Katarina Karnéus mezzo-soprano
Eric Cutler tenor | Iain Paterson bass-baritone | Hallé Choir
A violin soloist earlier in the season, the versatile Nikolaj Znaider exchanges bow for baton as he returns to conduct two very different ninth symphonies. At the end of the Second World War Shostakovich was commissioned to write a grand symphony in praise of Stalin. Incredibly, what transpired was a work of biting wit and satire that landed him in deep trouble with the Soviet authorities. The Thursday Series draws to a glorious close with Beethoven’s iconic ‘Choral Symphony’. From dark beginnings it proceeds via the cosmic energy of its scherzo and a deeply meditative slow movement to the rapturous triumph of Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’ and a frenzied conclusion.
