Online: The Hallé - Fanfare for the Hallé

A warm welcome back to our loyal audience, and to music-making by the Hallé with Sir Mark at the helm, in this first concert of the orchestra’s Winter Season. And to launch it, a celebratory Fanfare for the Hallé, specially composed for the occasion by Huw Watkins. Continuing the optimistic mood, Wagner’s Suite from his comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg rings out with a blaze of sonorous sound. Brahms’s First Symphony only emerged after 20 years of struggle as he wrestled with composing a symphony worthy of Beethoven – ‘that giant whose steps I always hear behind me.’ By the symphony’s conclusion, Brahms proved himself a true successor, nowhere more so than in the finale with its radiant horn tune (transcribed from Swiss alpine horns) and main theme, daringly referencing the Master’s ‘Ode to Joy’ from the Ninth Symphony. Appropriately for a season of firsts, this will be the first time that Sir Mark has conducted this Brahms symphony with the Hallé.

For more information on the event, how to book, and how to view the event, visit www.halle.co.uk/winter-season-2020