CityLife

Classical Spectacular

Classical Spectacular
MEN Arena
November 28, 2009

IT takes confidence con brio to bill yourself as a ‘spectacular’. 

However, let’s park our preconceptions with our motor vehicles on this rainy Mancunian night and reflect that – although this is essentially a night of Classical Greatest Hits – we’re in professional hands with our own Hallé orchestra, the Leeds Festival Chorus, tenor John Hudson, baritone David Kempster and the fabulous pianist Jonathan Scott, an alumnus of Chethams and the Royal Northern College of Music. 

Yes, we have the hits (in laymen’s terms there’s the World Cup one, the Apocalypse Now one, the horror film one), however, it’s equally obvious that these people really know their Shostakovich.

The unashamedly populist choice of repertoire – it is a light-hearted presentation and laser show that envelops us – all combine to create an irresistible energy that crackles around the auditorium. 

Pizzazz

Thai boxing will soon inhabit the space now preoccupied with Brahms, Elgar and Offenbach but a quick scan reveals an inescapable truth: empty seats are scarcer than subtle moments in a Wagner opera.

The Hallé, amiably conducted by John Rigby, touch all bases – from a Strauss waltz to the gorgeously sleazy muted trumpet in Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, Scott’s particular place to shine. 

The first half ends with Elgar’s March No 1 from Pomp And Circumstance and in the second they throw everything at us – muskets, fireworks, canons, flames… and Muscovites in period costume. 

They certainly know how to put pizzazz into Puccini and va va voom into Verdi.  The back end of the second half is also rather Proms-esque, building through Jerusalem to Rule, Britannia! 

My Patriot-o-meter wavers from vivace to vigoroso at the best of times and I find myself swinging my complimentary Union Jack flag with such reckless abandon that it nearly falls to pieces under the strain. 

Ovations done with, my wife and I hum La Donna è Mobile all the way back to the car, determined to take in more classical music performances; equally minded that, perhaps it was the underlying intent all along.

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