Seaside treat in city centre

Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

youngsters piled into the Bridgewater Hall to watch the Halle’s summer prom “Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea.”

The draw was the 69-strong children’s choir, which gave a superb performance, singing clearly, precisely and tunefully through a selection of seaside and seafaring shanties, as well as a piece specially written for young voices “The Journey: Blackpool,” which was premiered at London’s Albert Hall 18 years ago.

Composer Jonathan Dove was there to hear the young singers give voice to his “Seaside Postcards,” created to allow young people, who perhaps could not play a musical instrument, the chance to perform with a full symphony orchestra.

Presenter Alasdair Malloy did a terrific job of making the show appeal to people of all ages.

His arrangement of “Notes on a Postcard” was a hit, as he paraded musicians with every instrument from the double bass to the oboe to play solo excerpts for a quiz where the audience had to guess from each piece of music which country a postcard would be coming from.

A beautiful rendition of Khachaturian’s Adagio from “Spartacus,” followed Oldham-born William Walton’s “Portsmouth Point.”

A wonderful piece of music composed for David Attenborough’s groundbreaking “The Blue Planet” and used to accompany fabulous views of a blue whale, the largest creature to have ever lived on the earth, was a delight, and more screen music came in the form of James Horner’s composition for “Titanic,” setting the scene for the tragic love story on the ill-fated vessel.