Overview of Hallé live performance with Antje Weithaas carried out by Christian Reif

                                                                           Christian Reif  (cr. Simon Pauly)            

The prolonged platform was in use once more at
the Bridgewater Corridor to accommodate the total forces of the Hallé Orchestra in
Stravinsky’s The Ceremony of Spring (which was the principle advertising and marketing label for
this live performance). It was a worthy studying below conductor Christian Reif, who has
the power to inject a near-theatrical magic into every little thing he touches.

There was explicit gravity and feeling in
the slower dances of the primary a part of The Ceremony, an actual sense of thriller
because the second half started, and excitingly realized rigidity within the conclusions to
each segments. The piece has attained the sanctity of set-text authority as an
archetype of modernism nowadays (and modernism is now a matter for historical past
books), however even when it shocks lower than it did 110 years in the past it may nonetheless pack
a punch.

However the better curiosity for me personally
was to come across one other work by Dobrinka Tabakova, the Hallé’s
artist-in-residence this season – on this case Pacific, from her Earth Suite,
a set of items begun when she held an identical job just lately with the BBC Live performance
Orchestra, and apparently nonetheless in progress as an open-ended set. Giving music eco-titles
is a helpful technique at the moment (it helps arts organisations tick bins for his or her
funders), however her description of this piece, written because the Covid pandemic
started, as permeated by “a few of the nervousness and uncertainty of that point” made
extra connections with the sounds we heard.

It begins with spooky tapping, silence and
low hums, earlier than a form of chorale for muted trombones after which the sound of
the strings: adopted by a sequence of melodic strains for differing combos
of wind devices, some extremely prolonged, in opposition to a plodding choral
accompaniment, which builds to a broad climax earlier than dying away fairly quickly.
It’s a simple construction to comply with and has a top quality of confidence and
restfulness that outweighs any others.

The sooner components within the programme have been
Falla’s Interlude and Dance from La Vida Breve, piloted by Christian
Reif with a certain hand, casting enchantment within the former from the easy
elements of unison strings, solo clarinet, and so forth, and protecting a gradual however
completely danceable pulse, with out over-emphasis of its “Spanishness”, within the
latter.

And a beautiful solo for Bartók’s Violin
Concerto no. 2 got here from Antje Weithaas. She had no drawback with the total
strings energy (practically 50) of the Hallé, as Reif saved the orchestral sound below
exact management, and amid all of the virtuosity and fireworks there was
tenderness, eloquence and poise.

Antje Weithaas (cr. Kaupo Kikkas)