Strings section shines

Halle, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” was the title of Saturday’s concert, and “A Little Night Music” was what the Halle Orchestra delivered.

Under the accomplished direction of Halle leader, Lyn Fletcher, the world-famous orchestra concentrated on the strings section to delight an audience eager to hear some of the best-loved music from composers ranging from Mozart and Bach to Mahler and Vivaldi.

There is something beautiful and fascinating about the interplay of two instruments under the hands of talented musicians, and Lyn joined fellow-violinist Catherine Yates in a superbly energetic performance of Bach’s Concerto for Violins in D minor.

It is almost as if the violins converse in an intimate exchange on stage, and the magic is heightened by the occasional accompaniment of the main body of strings.

The concert began with Mozart’s instantly recognisable classic, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, faultlessly played in the Bridgewater Hall’s intimate setting by 28 string instruments.

The mood changed when it was followed by the more soulful, sombre sounds of strings and the organ in a piece of music called “Adagio in G minor,” by Albinoni, but more popularly recognised for providing an atmospheric background to films such as “Rollerball,” “Gallipoli” and Orson Welles’s “The Trial.”

World-class trumpeter Gareth Small gave a fabulous performance, not only alongside fellow trumpeter Niall Keatley in Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor”, but in an encore which featured a beautiful Mozart aria.

This latest offering in this season’s Pops concerts had more empty seats than usual, but still a treat.

Maybe it was the proximity of Christmas or perhaps the choice of music was less popular than we have come to expect from the Pops concerts which often explore the world of film, stage and opera.

Yet the Halle performed at its usual superb level, and the non-festive programme was the last before the orchestra bursts into a trail of festivity over Christmas and the New Year which is bound to drag in crowds of music-lovers looking for an undoubtedly good time to herald the end of 2009 and the start of the New Year.