Review of Hallé concert with Antje Weithaas conducted by Christian Reif

                                                                           Christian Reif  (cr. Simon Pauly)            

The extended platform was in use again at the Bridgewater Hall to accommodate the full forces of the Hallé Orchestra in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (which was the main marketing label for this concert). It was a worthy reading under conductor Christian Reif, who has the ability to inject a near-theatrical magic into everything he touches.

There was particular gravity and feeling in the slower dances of the first part of The Rite, a real sense of mystery as the second part began, and excitingly realized tension in the conclusions to both segments. The piece has attained the sanctity of set-text authority as an archetype of modernism these days (and modernism is now a matter for history books), but even if it shocks less than it did 110 years ago it can still pack a punch.

But the greater interest for me personally was to encounter another work by Dobrinka Tabakova, the Hallé’s artist-in-residence this season – in this case Pacific, from her Earth Suite, a set of pieces begun when she held a similar job recently with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and apparently still in progress as an open-ended set. Giving music eco-titles is a useful strategy today (it helps arts organisations tick boxes for their funders), but her description of this piece, written as the Covid pandemic began, as permeated by “some of the anxiety and uncertainty of that time” made more connections with the sounds we heard.

It begins with spooky tapping, silence and low hums, before a kind of chorale for muted trombones and then the sound of the strings: followed by a sequence of melodic lines for differing combinations of wind instruments, some highly extended, against a plodding choral accompaniment, which builds to a broad climax before dying away quite rapidly. It’s an easy structure to follow and has a quality of confidence and restfulness that outweighs any others.

The earlier elements in the programme were Falla’s Interlude and Dance from La Vida Breve, piloted by Christian Reif with a sure hand, casting enchantment in the former from the simple ingredients of unison strings, solo clarinet, and so on, and keeping a steady but perfectly danceable pulse, without over-emphasis of its “Spanishness”, in the latter.

And a wonderful solo for Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2 came from Antje Weithaas. She had no problem with the full strings strength (nearly 50) of the Hallé, as Reif kept the orchestral sound under precise control, and amid all the virtuosity and fireworks there was tenderness, eloquence and poise.

Antje Weithaas (cr. Kaupo Kikkas)