Bowing out on a musical high
Reporter: Marina Berry
Date published: 31 December 2009
Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
THE inspirational Halle Orchestra played its final concert of the year at its Bridgewater Hall home under the baton of conducting regular Carl Davis.
Joined by Oldham-born singer vocalist Melanie Marshall and last-minute stand-in Lance Ellington — a winter bug claimed the billed Simon Bowman — the concert proved a fitting end to 2009.
It explored Broadway spectaculars over the decades, and the musicians and vocalists teased their audience with well known and some not so well-known numbers from stage favourites.
The evening kicked off with Davis’s trademark larger than life sound, when the orchestra burst into a New York medley which brought to life age-old hits including “New York, New York,” “42nd Street,” and “Lullaby of Broadway”.
The first half concentrated on some lesser known pieces from the musicals, given panache and verve by Marshall’s richly melodious voice and Ellington’s brave effort to prove “the show must go on”.
Lovely to listen to, Marshall made a superb Mother Superior with “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, from “The Sound of Music”, which fitted her voice much better than it did “My Favourite Things” — it would take much to come anywhere near the crisp, perfect diction of Julie Andrews.
The second half was littered with massive hits, including excerpts from the Abba stage show “Mamma Mia”, Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” from “Blue Hawaii” and “Mary Poppins’” trademark tongue-twister, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.
Davis and Marshall injected a welcome sense of humour with the duet “Anything You Can Do” from “Annie Get Your Gun”, and among the best performances were Ellington’s version of “The Music of the Night” from “The Phantom of the Opera” and Marshall’s “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
It was another enjoyable evening in this season’s pops concerts from the faultless Halle. Aimed at attracting newcomers to classical music, the concerts certainly play their part in doing just that.
