Whisked off to a night with stars

Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
The Halle gambolled through some of the great film scores in its latest Pops concert, Movie Classics.

A packed audience was transported by some of the best-known music from iconic films such as The Great Escape, and Gone With the Wind, and blockbusters including Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings and even Batman.

Also worthy of mention was a suite from Leonard Bernstein’s score from the Marlon Brando movie, On The Waterfront, both evocative and mesmerising like so many of the composer’s film and theatre music.

Well-known scores from 11 big movies spanning seven decades were played by a highly-tuned orchestra under energetic and enthusiastic conductor Stephen Bell.

Bury-born Bell is a regular conductor of the Halle’s pop concerts and an accomplished horn player — indeed he performed in the orchestra that recorded the scores of the last two Star Wars movies, conducted by composer, John Williams.