CityLife

Hitting the right notes with the Hallé

Hallé in the sunshine in 2008

IT’S the perennial battle for any orchestra – constantly moving forward without trampling on the traditions of the past.

But in the case of Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra, it’s one that they seem to keep on winning.

They head into this weekend’s ‘end of term’ picnic party in Tatton Park having been lauded for their hottest-ticket-in-town performance alongside Elbow at the Manchester International Festival.

At the same time, praise will still be ringing in the ears of the players who performed Götterdämmerung at the Bridgewater Hall a few weeks back, receiving the most rousing reception that this newspaper’s reviewer had ever witnessed. The standing ovation went on for a hand-smarting 15 minutes!

And next year they will collaborate with on an ambition project alongside the BBC Philharmonic, playing the entire Mahler Symphony cycle.

Hitting the right notes with their traditional patrons, while continuing to seek new listeners, can be difficult, but chief executive John Summers says it’s something Manchester’s ‘oldest band’ does better than any other orchestra in the country.

“If you go back to the autobiography of Sir Charles Hallé, written in 1879, he was worried about the audience getting older,” says Summers, who arrived at the Bridgewater Hall ten years ago alongside the Hallé’s acclaimed conductor Sir Mark Elder. 

“What we’re doing about it is to that we have two youth orchestras, a youth choir and children’s choir, so we’re getting really stuck in. And we’ve got the biggest education programme of probably any orchestra in the country.

“We’re just about to get the first musician who’s gone through the youth orchestra who’s going to go into the orchestra proper. That’s taken seven or eight years.

“And we we have to do is constantly do the same things in a more interesting way.”

Working with Elbow – an idea suggested by the Hallé’s PR public relations agency – was a prime example.

The two-night collaboration was orchestrated (excuse the pun) by the Salford-based conductor Joe Duddell and, as anyone who was there to witnessed it will attest, the event was a massive successful event.

While the impact at the box office is still to be assessed, it comes as no surprise that the phone in Summers’ office hasn’t stopped ringing since.

“We’ve had quite a lot of approaches from people working in the pop world,” he adds.

“I’m being cautious because if it doesn’t work, then that’s a shame.

"We got lucky with Guy Garvey and Elbow, but if the music doesn’t lend itself to that, then it wouldn’t work. Guy is a terrific bloke – they’re all great – and for them to go around and say such nice things about the Hallé to an audience that might not necessarily know us that well was fantastic.”

Alex Poots

Summers is already talking to Manchester International Festival director Alex Poots about the next event in 2011.

But arguably the biggest thing that the Hallé does each year is head out into the Cheshire countryside.

Once again, it means performing for people who might not necessarily be Bridgewater Hall regulars.

“Apart from the fact that there are a huge number of people – over 10,000 – this is also our chance to get out into Cheshire, because there aren’t any venues,” Summers adds. “But it brings logistical and practical problems too.

“Because it’s amplified, that presents difficulties because every instrument has to be mic-ed up. There are also the fireworks.

“We did one of these last week in Leeds and the sun was shining.

"One of our violinists plays a Stradivarius and the sun was threatening to melt the varnish, but I’m not sure that will be a problem this weekend.

“Tatton for us is always the last performance before we break up for the holidays.

"The programme reflects that. There are always lots of easy-listening pieces to reflect the atmosphere of the evening and there’s always an agreement about which piece the fireworks start to, because the fireworks are always spectacular.”

And the Hallé’s fortunes are flying too. Summers joined at what was one of the most difficult financial periods in the orchestra’s history.

It was thrown a lifeline thanks to a fundraising campaign and the promise of an annual income from The Arts Council and has survived to be stronger and better than before.

“The orchestra’s on a much better footing now and its standing in the artistic community is much higher than it’s been for a long time, both in Manchester and internationally,” he adds. “That’s down to Mark and the players. We’re in good shape.”

The Hallé Fireworks and Light Spectacular takes place in Tatton Park on Saturday night. Check tattonparkconcerts.com for further details.