Due to high demand for tickets, the Hallé, in association with The Bridgewater Hall, is delighted to announce a second performance of Sir Mark Elder’s final concert as Hallé Music Director.
The concert will take place on Friday 31 May 2024 at 7.30pm in The Bridgewater Hall and the programme will be exactly the same as Sir Mark’s final concert on Saturday 1 June, which has now sold out.
Sir Mark Elder has held the position of Music Director for 24 years and, since starting the role in 2000, has seen the orchestra win numerous awards and accolades. Sir Mark was also instrumental in helping to set up the Hallé’s youth choirs and orchestra and the Assistant Conductor post in the early 2000s.
In celebration of Sir Mark’s championship of the Hallé’s choral ensembles, the first half of the concerts feature not only the orchestra, but the massed voices of the Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir and Hallé Children’s Choir as they perform the European premiere of James MacMillan’s Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia, a work specially commissioned by the Hallé.
In the second half, the Hallé will perform Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work which takes the listener from heavy tragedy to brilliant optimism. In choosing this work, Sir Mark wanted to showcase the qualities of the Hallé – ‘their fighting spirit, joie de vivre, determination and commitment to their music-making.’
Hallé Music Director Sir Mark Elder said:
“In June 2024 I will conduct my last concert in Manchester as Music Director of this exceptional orchestra. I could not wish for a better finale: a specially commissioned premiere of James MacMillan’s ‘Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia’ with the Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir and Hallé Children’s Choir. We close with Mahler’s Symphony No.5, triumphant, bright and optimistic in its conclusion. Our work is pointless without audiences to hear it. People who come every month or once a year. Children from school, students from university, anyone who has ever heard our music out of curiosity. To every single one of you, thank you.”
