Waltz through the Viennese classics

New Year Celebration, the Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
IF there is one thing guaranteed to lift the spirits and get the New Year off to a grand start, it’s a concert of Viennese music.

And last night’s offering by the razor sharp Halle Orchestra and its special guest, Lesley Garrett, was no exception.

This fine set of musicians cavorted through a packed programme of music written by a range of composers who were either born, lived or worked in Vienna over the centuries.

The work of the Strauss family featured heavily, as can only be expected with any celebration of Viennese music, and the composers’ aim to put people who went to their concerts in a good mood, is still paying off almost 200 years later.

Aided by the voice of Britain’s most popular soprano, it was an uplifting, inspiring and cheerful concert which had its audience clapping and toe-tapping throughout the evening.

Energetic Welsh-born conductor Wyn Davies whisked the Halle Orchestra through a rousing choice of pieces, from the likes of the Strauss brothers, Brahms, Schubert and Mozart.

And Lesley Garrett belted out a fine set of arias, including the “Soldier’s Song” from “The Merry Widow”, and “Vedrai, carino” from “Don Giovanni”, but it was her hot-bloodied, feisty rendition of “Czardas” from the Hungarian operetta “Zigeunerliebe”, translated as “Gypsy Love” which stole the show.

No Viennese concert would be worth its salt without the beautiful Strauss waltz “The Blue Danube” and it was a piece well worth waiting for as the orchestra performed a top-class version as the programme came to a close.

The concert ended with an encore of the popular Radetzky March — another Strauss favourite for Viennese concerts, and one which always attracts enthusiastic audience participation at the request of the conductor.