Prom 31: Hallé, Coote, Elder, Royal Albert Hall
The levels of refinement now exhibited by the Hallé, the stylishness and elegance of the playing, is alone a measure of the special relationship that they and Mark Elder have cemented over the last decade and a…
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Elder, Royal Festival Hall (Review)
The natural logic of this heady mix of first and second Viennese utterances was turned on its head with Webern’s early tone poem Im Sommerwind opening like a breathy premonition of the autumnal second song of Mahler’s…
Prom 37: Elgar “The Apostles”, Hallé Orchestra & Choirs, Elder – Review*****
For those of us who have always regarded The Apostles as the least of Elgar’s great trilogy of religious oratorios the magnificence of Mark Elder’s Hallé performance will have coaxed if not demanded re-evaluation. The Albert Hall…
Prom 9: Hallé Orchestra, Elder, Royal Albert Hall
Homecomings, real and imagined, marked out this season’s Hallé Prom. For Sibelius, brazen horn fanfares and myriad string ostinati carried us at the gallop to the heart of the Finnish heartlands. Everything in his rarely performed Scènes…
Elgar “The Kingdom”, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Elder, Barbican Hall
Elgar’s The Kingdom arrives in the heat of inspiration on a surge of orchestral magnificence. A glorious theme representing “New Faith” is announced in the strings, as noble and aspirational as anything Elgar wrote. If his own…