Welcome to the Hallé's new programme of pre- and post-concert talks and performances for 2007-2008. Throughout our 150th season, there are pre-concert talks, performances, workshops, open rehearsals and film screening. Everything happens in The Bridgewater Hall auditorium unless otherwise stated. Make sure you check the time and location of the event!

All pre- and post-concert events are free to concert ticket holders, so come along and experience an extra dimension to the Hallé's music-making. 

Thursday 1 May - Pre-concert event, 6.15pm; Post-concert talk
Thursday 22 May - Pre-concert event, 6.15pm


HALLÉ 150
Thursday 1 May
6.15pm Pre-concert event
Sir Hamilton Harty: The Irish Toscanini ...
Philip Hammond and special guests
When Sir Hamilton Harty left the Hallé in 1933 after a reign of thirteen years, he remarked in his farewell speech that he had been honoured greatly by Manchester handing over its orchestra to him … ‘I think I am not being immodest when I say I hand it back to you perhaps better than it was when I took it over’. It was a fair enough comment and of course Harty too had probably found himself in both musical and personal terms during those halcyon years with the Hallé.

Once dubbed in America as ‘the Irish Toscanini’, his career brought him to the edge of international celebrity. But seventy years after his last concert as permanent conductor of the Hallé, is he all but forgotten by most people?

Philip Hammond, a doctoral graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, has been a lifelong advocate and promoter of the music of Sir Hamilton Harty, and is joined by special guests to explore the musical life of the great Irish conductor and composer.

Post-concert talk
Mark Elder | Hallé players
After tonight’s concert, Mark Elder will be joined by members of the orchestra to reflect on the evening’s performance, and respond to your comments and questions.

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HALLÉ 150
Thursday 22 May, 6.15pm
Hans Richter: 'true artist and true friend'
Christopher Cook | Colin Matthews | Anthony Arblaster
Elgar’s famous dedication at the top of his first symphony spoke volumes. When George Szell came to conduct the Hallé in Manchester in the 1930s he told one interviewer that ‘You can still feel Hans Richter in it.’ Hans Richter, the champion of Wagner, Bruckner and Brahms, had made the Hallé a band to be reckoned with, lending the orchestra his own version of the great German classical tradition. But what were Richter’s concerts like during the eleven years that he was Chief Conductor of the orchestra. Did he build on the programming skills of his Victorian
predecessors or strike out in new directions? There was Elgar and Strauss but why no Debussy? And what did he demand from his players?

Christopher Cook is joined by Colin Matthews and the distinguished political scholar and commentator Anthony Arblaster. The discussion will include musical illustrations by students from Chetham’s School of Music.

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Events and speakers are correct at the time of going to print, but we reserve the right to change them if necessary.