The Hallé
Encyclopedia
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester
, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra (and the fourth oldest in the world), supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records
and EMI
. Since 1996 the orchestra has been resident at the Bridgewater Hall
.
set up an orchestra to perform at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, which it did until October. Hallé decided to continue working with the orchestra as a formal organisation, and it gave its first concert under those auspices on 30 January 1858. The orchestra's first home was the Free Trade Hall
. By 1861 the orchestra was in financial trouble, and it performed only two concerts that year.
Hans Richter
served as music director from 1899 to 1911. During his tenure, the orchestra gave the first performance of the Symphony No. 1
of Sir Edward Elgar
.
In 1943 the orchestra was again in crisis, having diminished in size to 30 players. Over the next 27 years, from 1943 to 1970, the orchestra's next music director, Sir John Barbirolli
, restored the Hallé to national prominence. Together, they made many recordings, including the first recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams
' Symphony No. 8
, of which they also gave the first performance. During Barbirolli's tenure, one of the most notable orchestra members was concertmaster Martin Milner, who served in that capacity from 1958 to 1987. Barbirolli regarded Milner as his "right-hand man" and once wrote in appreciation to him: "You are the finest leader I have ever had in my fairly long career."
Kent Nagano
was principal conductor of the orchestra from 1992 to 1999. The orchestra moved from the Free Trade Hall to the Bridgewater Hall in 1996, as its primary concert venue. During his tenure, Nagano received criticism for his expensive and ambitious programming, as well as his conducting fees. However, poor financial management at the orchestra separately contributed to the fiscal troubles of the orchestra. The orchestra faced major financial problems during the late 1990s, including a £1.3 million deficit in 1998, to the point where the existence of the orchestra was threatened with loss of funding from the Arts Council and ultimately bankruptcy.
During 1997 there was an eight-month period when the orchestra had no executive director. Leslie Robinson served for two years as chief executive after that period, starting changes to the orchestra to start to bring under control the orchestra's financial troubles. These included public fund-raising, which netted £2 million, cutting the number of people on the orchestra board in half, and reducing the number of musicians in the orchestra from 98 to 80.
Since 1999 the orchestra's chief executive has been John Summers, and he continued Robinson's fiscal practices to restore greater financial security to the orchestra. In 2001, the Arts Council awarded the orchestra a £3.8 million grant to allow it to pay off accumulated debts and increase musician salaries, which had been frozen for 4 years.
In September 2000 Sir Mark Elder
took up the position of music director, having been appointed to the post in 1999. His concerts with the orchestra have received consistently positive reviews, and he is generally regarded as having restored the orchestra to high critical and musical standards. In 2004 Elder signed a contract to extend his tenure through 2010, and in May 2009 the Hallé announced a further extension to 2015.
One of the orchestra's recent ideas was to try to find alternative stage dress to the traditional "penguin suits", but this idea did not come to fruition. The orchestra has also begun to issue new CD recordings under its own label.
In March 2006 the orchestra was forced to cancel a planned tour of the United States because of the cost and administrative difficulties in obtaining visas for the musicians, a result of the tougher visa regulations intended to combat potential terrorist attacks.
The orchestra appointed its first-ever principal guest conductor, Cristian Mandeal, in 2006. He served in this post until 2009. In February 2008, the orchestra announced the appointment of Markus Stenz
as its second and next principal guest conductor, starting in 2009. Past assistant conductors have included Edward Gardner
and Rory Macdonald
, and Ewa Strusińska (2008–2010), the first female conductor named to a UK assistant conductorship. In September 2010, Andrew Gourlay became the Hallé's new assistant conductor, whose duties include musical direction of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. The current leader of the Hallé is Lyn Fletcher. The orchestra's current head of artistic planning is Geoffrey Owen.
Notable premieres
The choir's activities include individual vocal coaching, sectional and full choir rehearsals as well as social events. Margaret McDonald is the choir's vocal coach.
The Hallé Choir has received critical acclaim for performances with Elder, including a Verdi centenary programme at the BBC Proms and performances of Haydn
's The Creation, J.S. Bach
's St John Passion and Janáček
's Glagolitic Mass
. The Hallé's CD label features the choir on its releases, English Rhapsody, Hallé Christmas Classics and Elgar: A Self-Portrait. The choir was also featured in The Hallé's 2008 recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
with Bryn Terfel, Alice Coote
, Paul Groves, Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir, which won a Gramophone Award in 2009. A second Gramophone Award was awarded fin 2010 for the Hallé's live recording of 'Götterdämmerung'. in 2011, and for the third consecutive year a Gramophone Award was awarded for the live recording of Edward Elgar's 'The Kingdom' for which Tom Seligman was the guest Choral Director.
Frances Cooke has been appointed Hallé Choir Director until August 2012.
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra (and the fourth oldest in the world), supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records
Angel Records
Angel Records is a record label belonging to EMI. It was formed in 1953 and specialised in classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score...
and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. Since 1996 the orchestra has been resident at the Bridgewater Hall
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is an international concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build and currently hosts over 250 performances a year....
.
History
In May 1857 the pianist and conductor Charles HalléCharles Hallé
Sir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
set up an orchestra to perform at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, which it did until October. Hallé decided to continue working with the orchestra as a formal organisation, and it gave its first concert under those auspices on 30 January 1858. The orchestra's first home was the Free Trade Hall
Free Trade Hall
The Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, was a public hall constructed in 1853–6 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre and is now a hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The architect was Edward Walters The hall subsequently was...
. By 1861 the orchestra was in financial trouble, and it performed only two concerts that year.
Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
served as music director from 1899 to 1911. During his tenure, the orchestra gave the first performance of the Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)
Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55 is one of his two completed symphonies. The first performance was given by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester, England, on 3 December 1908. It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than...
of Sir Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
.
In 1943 the orchestra was again in crisis, having diminished in size to 30 players. Over the next 27 years, from 1943 to 1970, the orchestra's next music director, Sir John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
, restored the Hallé to national prominence. Together, they made many recordings, including the first recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' Symphony No. 8
Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams)
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8 in D minor was composed between 1953 and 1955. It was the first of his symphonies which Vaugham Williams allowed to be given a number. Sir John Barbirolli conducted the premiere of the piece on May 2, 1956, with the Halle Orchestra. Eugene Ormandy gave the...
, of which they also gave the first performance. During Barbirolli's tenure, one of the most notable orchestra members was concertmaster Martin Milner, who served in that capacity from 1958 to 1987. Barbirolli regarded Milner as his "right-hand man" and once wrote in appreciation to him: "You are the finest leader I have ever had in my fairly long career."
Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...
was principal conductor of the orchestra from 1992 to 1999. The orchestra moved from the Free Trade Hall to the Bridgewater Hall in 1996, as its primary concert venue. During his tenure, Nagano received criticism for his expensive and ambitious programming, as well as his conducting fees. However, poor financial management at the orchestra separately contributed to the fiscal troubles of the orchestra. The orchestra faced major financial problems during the late 1990s, including a £1.3 million deficit in 1998, to the point where the existence of the orchestra was threatened with loss of funding from the Arts Council and ultimately bankruptcy.
During 1997 there was an eight-month period when the orchestra had no executive director. Leslie Robinson served for two years as chief executive after that period, starting changes to the orchestra to start to bring under control the orchestra's financial troubles. These included public fund-raising, which netted £2 million, cutting the number of people on the orchestra board in half, and reducing the number of musicians in the orchestra from 98 to 80.
Since 1999 the orchestra's chief executive has been John Summers, and he continued Robinson's fiscal practices to restore greater financial security to the orchestra. In 2001, the Arts Council awarded the orchestra a £3.8 million grant to allow it to pay off accumulated debts and increase musician salaries, which had been frozen for 4 years.
In September 2000 Sir Mark Elder
Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder, CBE is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.-Biography:Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist...
took up the position of music director, having been appointed to the post in 1999. His concerts with the orchestra have received consistently positive reviews, and he is generally regarded as having restored the orchestra to high critical and musical standards. In 2004 Elder signed a contract to extend his tenure through 2010, and in May 2009 the Hallé announced a further extension to 2015.
One of the orchestra's recent ideas was to try to find alternative stage dress to the traditional "penguin suits", but this idea did not come to fruition. The orchestra has also begun to issue new CD recordings under its own label.
In March 2006 the orchestra was forced to cancel a planned tour of the United States because of the cost and administrative difficulties in obtaining visas for the musicians, a result of the tougher visa regulations intended to combat potential terrorist attacks.
The orchestra appointed its first-ever principal guest conductor, Cristian Mandeal, in 2006. He served in this post until 2009. In February 2008, the orchestra announced the appointment of Markus Stenz
Markus Stenz
Markus Stenz is a German conductor. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Volker Wangenhein and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa....
as its second and next principal guest conductor, starting in 2009. Past assistant conductors have included Edward Gardner
Edward Gardner (conductor)
Edward Gardner is a British conductor.Gardner sang as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral. As a youth, he played piano, clarinet and organ. He attended the King's School, Gloucester and Eton College. At the University of Cambridge, he continued as a music student, and was a choral scholar in...
and Rory Macdonald
Rory Macdonald (conductor)
Rory Macdonald is a Scottish conductor.-Education:He attended Douglas Academy in Milngavie, Glasgow and went on to read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He studied violin and piano, and began conducting aged 16...
, and Ewa Strusińska (2008–2010), the first female conductor named to a UK assistant conductorship. In September 2010, Andrew Gourlay became the Hallé's new assistant conductor, whose duties include musical direction of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. The current leader of the Hallé is Lyn Fletcher. The orchestra's current head of artistic planning is Geoffrey Owen.
Notable premieres
- Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, Symphony No. 1Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55 is one of his two completed symphonies. The first performance was given by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester, England, on 3 December 1908. It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than...
(1908) - Constant LambertConstant LambertLeonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
, The Rio GrandeThe Rio Grande (Lambert)The Rio Grande is a work by Constant Lambert, for alto, choir, piano, brass, strings and a percussion section of 15 instruments, needing five players. It was written in 1927, and achieved instant and long-lasting popularity on its appearance on the concert stage in 1929...
(1929; first public performance; the work had been broadcast on radio in 1928) - Anthony Collins, Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action (1945)
- William AlwynWilliam AlwynWilliam Alwyn, CBE, born William Alwyn Smith was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.-Life and music:...
, Symphony No. 1, (1949–1950) - William Alwyn, Symphony No. 2 (1953)
- Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, Sinfonia antartica (1953) - Gerald FinziGerald FinziGerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
, Cello Concerto (1955) - Anthony MilnerAnthony MilnerAnthony Milner was a British composer, teacher and conductor.Milner was born in Bristol, and educated at Douai School, Woolhampton, Berkshire. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied piano with Herbert Fryer and theory with R. O. Morris...
, Variations for Orchestra (1959) - Thomas AdèsThomas AdèsThomas Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor.-Biography:Adès studied piano with Paul Berkowitz and later composition with Robert Saxton at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London...
, These Premises Are Alarmed (1996) - Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
Das klagende Lied (complete version) (1997) - Graham FitkinGraham FitkinGraham Fitkin is a British composer, pianist and conductor. His compositions fall broadly into the minimalist and postminimalist genres...
, "North" (1998) - Colin MatthewsColin MatthewsColin Matthews OBE is an English composer of classical music.-Early life and education:Matthews was born in London in 1946; his older brother is the composer David Matthews. He read classics at the University of Nottingham, and then studied composition there with Arnold Whittall, and with Nicholas...
, "Pluto", an addition to HolstGustav HolstGustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's The Planets (2000)
Hallé Choir
The Hallé Choir was founded with the orchestra in 1858 by Sir Charles Hallé. The choir gives around twenty concerts a year with the Hallé at The Bridgewater Hall and other venues across the UK. Appearing with international conductors and soloists in concert and recordings, the choir performs a repertoire of major choral and operatic works ranging from mainstream pieces to more esoteric pieces and commissions. James Burton was choral director from April 2002 to July 2009. Other guest choral directors have included Tom Seligman, David Lawrence, Frances Cooke, Ralph Allwood and Justin Doyle. The choir have worked with former Hallé Youth Choir director Greg Batsleer.The choir's activities include individual vocal coaching, sectional and full choir rehearsals as well as social events. Margaret McDonald is the choir's vocal coach.
The Hallé Choir has received critical acclaim for performances with Elder, including a Verdi centenary programme at the BBC Proms and performances of Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's The Creation, J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's St John Passion and Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's Glagolitic Mass
Glagolitic Mass
The Glagolitic Mass is a composition for soloists , double chorus, organ and orchestra by Leoš Janáček. The work was completed on 15 October 1926...
. The Hallé's CD label features the choir on its releases, English Rhapsody, Hallé Christmas Classics and Elgar: A Self-Portrait. The choir was also featured in The Hallé's 2008 recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
with Bryn Terfel, Alice Coote
Alice Coote
Alice Coote is a British lyric mezzo-soprano.The daughter of the painter Mark Coote, she was educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London , the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the National Opera Studio...
, Paul Groves, Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir, which won a Gramophone Award in 2009. A second Gramophone Award was awarded fin 2010 for the Hallé's live recording of 'Götterdämmerung'. in 2011, and for the third consecutive year a Gramophone Award was awarded for the live recording of Edward Elgar's 'The Kingdom' for which Tom Seligman was the guest Choral Director.
Frances Cooke has been appointed Hallé Choir Director until August 2012.
Principal conductors
- 1858–1895 Sir Charles HalléCharles HalléSir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
- 1895–1899 Sir Frederic CowenFrederic Hymen CowenSir Frederic Hymen Cowen , was a British pianist, conductor and composer.-Early years:Cowen was born Hymen Frederick Cohen at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last child of Frederick Augustus Cohen and Emily Cohen née Davis. His siblings were Elizabeth Rose Cohen ; actress,...
- 1899–1911 Hans RichterHans Richter (conductor)Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
- 1912–1914 Michael BallingMichael BallingMichael Balling was an German violist and conductor. He served as principal conductor of The Hallé, Manchester, England from 1912 to 1914....
- 1915–1920 Sir Thomas BeechamThomas BeechamSir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
(musical adviser) - 1920–1934 Sir Hamilton HartyHamilton HartySir Hamilton Harty was an Irish and British composer, conductor, pianist and organist. In his capacity as a conductor, he was particularly noted as an interpreter of the music of Berlioz and he was much respected as a piano accompanist of exceptional prowess...
- 1939–1942 Sir Malcolm SargentMalcolm SargentSir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
(conductor-in-chief) - 1943–1970 Sir John BarbirolliJohn BarbirolliSir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
- 1972–1983 James LoughranJames LoughranJames Loughran CBE, DMus., FRNCM, FRSAMD is a Scottish conductor.-Early life:Educated at St Aloysius' College in Glasgow, Loughran conducted at school and afterwards, while studying economics and law...
- 1983–1992 Stanisław Skrowaczewski
- 1992–1999 Kent NaganoKent Nagano__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...
- 2000–present Sir Mark ElderMark ElderSir Mark Philip Elder, CBE is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.-Biography:Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist...