The Hallé in Sheffield: April 2023

Christian Reif, the US-based German conductor, returns to perform a programme of 20th century classics with the Hallé, beginning with Spanish-suffused music from Manuel de Falla’s only opera, La Vida Breve. Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, composed at the height of his powers, draws on the traditional music legacy of his native Hungary. It is performed here by Antje Weithaas, on her first and most welcomed visit to the Hallé, whose celebrated performances combine technical mastery with deep musical insight. It is almost 110 years since the riotous premiere of Stravinsky’s cataclysmic The Rite of Spring, a work the composer revealed was ‘unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of spring’.