Royal occasion to savour

Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

SATURDAY’S “Pomp and Circumstance” concert was just as advertised — all pomp and circumstance — and certainly blew the cobwebs away.

Judging from the more than usual empty seats in the 2,400 capacity auditorium, the concert was one of the least popular in this season’s “Pops” concerts so far performed by the Halle Orchestra.

Bury-born conductor Stephen Bell led the musicians through a programme of music composed to mark stately Royal occasions, from coronations and funerals to the national anthem.

But it also explored films and plays with a Royal connection, with music from “The Queen”, which starred Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II and a concert suite of five pieces of music from “Henry V”.

“Halcyon Days”, written by Eric Coates, brought a fond smile to many faces who remembered it as the theme tune of TV’s popular 1960s costume drama, “The Forsyte Saga”.

Bell showed his love of Oldham-born composer William Walton with the choice of three of his pieces — the suite from “Henry V” and two marches — “Orb and Sceptre” and “Crown Imperial”.

My favourite of the evening was the “Hornpipe” from Handel’s “Water Music”. The composer had long been associated with Royal occasions when he wrote this well-known symphony which was so loved by King George I that he insisted — so the story goes — on it being played three times both on the outgoing and return journeys of an open barge ferrying English nobility down the River Thames for an evening of entertainment and supper in Chelsea.

It gave the audience the chance to hear the Bridgewater Hall’s wonderful majestic Marcusson pipe organ.

Bell has a passion for communicating with his audience, and was in his element when he got a rousing response after inviting them to join in with “Land of Hope and Glory”.