The Halle – St George’s Hall

THE PENULTIMATE concert in the 2014/15 Bradford International Orchestral Concert Season took place last Friday at the Bradford concert hall.

There was a large audience for something advertised in Bradford Theatres brochure as “very special”.

It was 150 years after Manchester’s Halle Orchestra first performed in Bradford, reported by the conductor Sir Mark Elder as a “milestone”.

The orchestra responded eloquently to their conductor’s moving tribute to George Butterworth’s work A Shropshire Lad, for the composer was killed in 1915 only two years after its premiere at the Leeds Festival.

The Enigma Variations have always been associated with the orchestra since its premiere in 1899 at the St James’s Hall in London under Hans Richter, a former Halle music director, and again they did themselves proud.

The concert ended with Dvorak’s magnificent Cello Concerto, on this occasion played by Alisa Weilerstein, an cellist from America, where the concerto began its illustrious life in 1896.

The concert was much enjoyed despite the absence of any reference during the evening to the promised “very special milestone”.

The orchestra’s 150th year celebration of its work for Bradford was disgracefully ignored.

The last performance in this year’s Bradford International Orchestral Concert Season will be on April 11.

Berne Symphony Orchestra, regarded by many as Switzerland’s leading orchestra, will perform music by Beethoven and Brahms at St George’s Hall, when it makes its first-ever visit to Bradford

The conductor will be Mario Venzago and the piano soloist will be Oliver Schnyder.

Judy: The Songbook of Judy Garland will be performed at St George’s Hall on May 18 and 19.

The show stars Lorna Luft, Judy Garland’s daughter, and West End star Louise Dearman.

Visit bradford-theatres.co.uk or call 01274 432000 to book tickets for St George’s Hall shows.

John Pettit