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The Halle orchestra marks 20 years with Nottingham Classics at Royal Concert Hall




The Halle orchestra will mark 20 years of its game-changing Nottingham Classics residency with a performance at the Royal Concert Hall.

Taking place on Friday (October 7) it will feature conductor Sir Mark Elder and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

Back in 2002 Nottingham Classics ­— the Royal Concert Hall’s international concert series ­— was in need of a reboot.

The Halle with Sir Mark Elder. Photo: Russell Hart (59669285)
The Halle with Sir Mark Elder. Photo: Russell Hart (59669285)

After two years without a resident orchestra, following the end of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s long run in Nottingham, average audiences had fallen to under 700 ­— but help was at hand.

Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra took on the residency and gave its first concert in autumn 2002, beginning the long process of rebuilding audiences in the city.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Nottingham. Sir Mark Elder had recently become the orchestra’s music director with a mission to return the orchestra to its former glory.

Fast forward 20 years and The Hallé is an international success story and its lustre has certainly rubbed off on Nottingham Classics.

And, as the Royal Concert Hall celebrates its 40th anniversary and emerges from the pandemic, the Hallé continues its leading role.

The three largest audiences in the comeback 2021-22 Nottingham Classics season were for Hallé concerts.

It’s fitting, therefore, that the Hallé’s achievements over two decades will be marked in the opening concert of the 2022-23 Classics season.

The orchestra is promising a spectacular programme to celebrate in style, complete with a top international soloist in the acclaimed Siberian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

He will give a performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, which is a firm favourite among audiences.

Rachmaninov’s big tunes are matched by the joyful melodies of Smetana’s Vltava from his tone poem, Ma Vlast, which begins the concert.

The finale is Richard Strauss’s dramatic Ein Heldenleben, played out on a vast sound-stage with a supersized orchestra.



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