Kevin Stanley is full of Christmas spirit as he reviews the Hallé's annual festive concert at the Royal Concert Hall...
The Hallé Christmas Concert has become an unmissable seasonal experience. It’s the beginning of my Christmas celebrations. I mark it on my advent calendar. This world-renowned orchestra are back in Nottingham and ready to fill the audience with Christmas spirit. There are plenty of people here tonight watching the Hallé Christmas Concert for the first time and conductor Stephen Bell ensures that they feel welcome.
This year the programme includes two fantastic singers from Nottinghamshire - soprano Lizzie Ryder and mezzo-soprano Emily Hodkinson are here to provide operatic vocals. They provide sublime vocals, as a duet, for Delibes’ Flower Duet which is genuinely stunning when sung live.
The programme includes the likes of Rimsky Korsakov’s Christmas Eve Polonaise, Humperdinck's poignant Evening Prayer and Dvořák’s beautiful and fantastical mermaid's aria from Rusalka. Also on offer are Offenbach’s cinematic music from The Polar Express and perhaps somewhat unexpectedly an excerpt from The Phantom of the Opera - that despite feeling somewhat out of place still delights especially with its opening violin passage which is instantly recognisable and sends shivers down the spine.
Of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without hearing an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker - tonight we’re treated to the bouncy, colourful and likeable Final Waltz and Apotheosis. Champagne Polka by Strauss elicits much laughter from the audience.
He’s always got a twinkle in his eye
Other favourites include A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Tormé’s The Christmas Song, and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
The programme has been put together to include as many styles of music as possible, including opera and ballet numbers. As ever, Bell conducts his orchestra with poise and precision. He’s always got a twinkle in his eye and his knowledge of music and its deep and interesting history is very impressive. He’s clearly devoted his life to the study of music and introduces each piece by offering relevant information such when it was first written, or where the inaugural performance was held.
Many of the Hallé musicians are dressed festively with Christmas hats or reindeer antlers, and tinsel draped on their music stands. And of course, so are the audience who are wearing all sorts of colourful Christmas jumpers and sparkly clothing. The backdrop to the orchestra is lit up by a projection of beautiful snowflakes.
By now it’s a full-on Christmas tradition for audience members to send bad Christmas jokes to Bell, which he reads out aloud to the audience shortly after the mid-show intermission. The audience love it regardless of how bad the jokes are! But this year seems to be a bumper year for clever wordplay even with a few political jokes. Only a single truly bad joke slipped through this year which induced groans across the audience!
If you missed out this year, make sure to attend the Christmas Concert in December 2025 when the Hallé will be back and ready to do it all over again. Jingle all the way!
The Hallé performed its Christmas Concert at the Royal Concert Hall on Thursday 12 December 2024.
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