The Halle

Last night we went to the Royal Concert Hall to hear the Halle Orchestra, and I just have to write about it.

The programme was Brahms’ 1^st Piano Concerto, the overture to The Flying Dutchman and Sibelius 5^th Symphony, so all quite big works. Sir Mark Elder did a preconcert talk, and he’s just great. He’s been doing these talks for a bit now – I don’t know how it started but the concert hall management emailed ticket holders, a long time ago now, and asked us how we felt about a talk he’d done. I’m sure the response was overwhelmingly positive, and so it seems to be becoming a tradition.

He explains the background to the works, and what was happening in the composers’ lives, and the significance of the key signature, and points out relationships between pieces of music and between movements of a piece, so you can listen much more intelligently and get much more out of the music. It’s brilliant. It also makes me wonder why so many concerts involve no one saying anything at all. Youngest son says classical music is elitist, and I don’t think that should be true, but when all the musicians are in white tie and nobody speaks, you do wonder how attractive it is to anyone who’s not already a seasoned concert goer.

In Nottingham the Halle and Mark Elder have got it right; they’ve built up a following and the hall was packed, hardly any spare seats. The BBC were there, thanks to the concert hall’s excellent acoustics, and we noticed the hall has had a bit of a facelift. It wasn’t shabby before, maybe a bit worn here and there, but the city council is looking after it well.

Paul Lewis was the soloist for the Brahms, and it was terrific, sparkling playing; the Flying Dutchman was wonderful; but the Sibelius! – it blew my socks off. It was just amazing, every moment so clear and precise, and with a charge of energy that left me feeling simultaneously invigorated and drained – catharsis, I suppose.  Sir Mark looked drained – it made me feel ever so slightly guilty that he’d done the preconcert talk, when the conducting takes it out of him to that extent.

It was broadcast live on Radio 3, so if you have iPlayer, you can listen and see what you think.