Carols spectacular brought a Christmas glow

Halle Christmas Carol Concert, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
SOME of the region’s finest singing voices joined forces with some of its most talented musicians to get Christmas off to a flying start as the Bridgewater Hall hosted a feast of festive fun.

The Halle Orchestra gave its usual razor-sharp performance yesterday afternoon for the middle show of three carol concerts which filled the last weekend before Christmas with music.

This was no spectator concert, with lots of chances for the audience to get to their feet and join in popular carols, at the bidding of conductor James Burton, who appeared to be having as much fun cajoling us to take part as we had joining in.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Away In A Manger”, “While Shepherds Watched”, they were all there just waiting for people to give voice to the well-loved tunes. The programme was scattered with other pieces from Christmas favourites including Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and Handel’s “Messiah”, and Mussorgsky’s beautifully haunting “Dawn on the Moscow River”.

Burton even popped in one of his own compositions, “On Christmas Night”, which was making its world premiere.

It was a Christmas present, he said, for his six-year-old goddaughter, Amelia, who should have been there to hear it played in public, but was unable to make the journey because of the snow.

She missed a real treat, with this talented musician, a former head chorister at Westminster Abbey, capturing the sounds and spirit of Christmas in a piece of music which will surely not have had its last airing.

The world-class Halle Orchestra provided the music for the Halle’s three choirs — the adult, youth and children’s choirs, which were full of passion and enthusiasm, and also gave some superb acapella performances.

The youth choir had given carol concert-goers a flavour of what to expect with a few festive tunes in the foyer before the start.”But the finale was something else, with the three choirs joining together with the sell-out audience to blast out "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", for an uplifting end to a warm and thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.