Thursday 20 February 2026
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
****
Exploring the Cosmos: The Hallé’s Stellar Concert
On Thursday evening, it was a pleasure to see a full stage (The Hallé orchestra under the baton of Kahchun Wong, on a specially extended stage), full choir stalls (the Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir) and a full house (the concert was sold out).
The concert consisted of two epic pieces about outer space, Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles by the South Korean composer Unsuk Chin, and Holst’s The Planets with the added final movement, Pluto, the Renewer, by Colin Matthews.
Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles was premiered ten years ago, in the opening season of Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Korean National Choir and Boys Choir under the baton of Myung-whun Chung. On Thursday, the Hallé orchestra, the Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir performed a revised version of the piece. The composer was present at the concert and worked with the performers to prepare the work.
The title of Chin’s work means ‘The Song of the Children of the Stars.’ It was inspired by her love of astronomy and physics. When she has finished composing for the day, she relaxes by watching videos and reading books about astronomy. In her programme note, she quotes the scientific fact that we are all ‘stardust’. As Dr Ashley King, planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, says,
‘Nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star and many have come through several supernovas’
Chin says that this scientific fact gives us a ‘cosmic perspective’ that can provide ‘experiences of transcendence’, similar in effect to the religious narratives that have existed for thousands of years. These experiences and narratives,
‘…can also guide towards a more global perspective, seen from which all national, ethnic or religious chauvinisms (which, sadly, seem to increase in today’s world) turn out to be very ludicrous indeed.‘
The Overview Effect
The Overview Effect is a term coined by author and space philosopher Frank White to describe the sometimes profound change of perspective experienced by astronauts looking back at the Earth from space. This change in perspective is described in the Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital (2023) by Samantha Harvey, and it inspired the top-five album The Overview by Steven Wilson, reviewed here.
Chin says that the realisation that we all come from the stars gives us hope. She dreams that Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles will one day be performed by choirs from both North and South Korea. The piece, which consists of 12 movements, uses texts from several poems she chose from a list of 150. The final choice includes poetry from Portuguese, Scandinavian, Mexican and British poets on ‘natural phenomena and on our physical relationship with the cosmos.’
In Thursday’s concert, the texts of the poems weren’t available, either in the programme book or in titles above the stage, but in any case, individual words in the piece often overlap to create a babel of sounds: Chin makes it clear that her work does not ‘aim to convey any particular extramusical message.’
The piece began with a single note on tubular bells, and a fanfare on horns, launching our journey into space. Mysterious strings and muted brass were obsessed with the same note. There was a huge climax, with crashing percussion, before the music fell away. It was immediately evident that the piecewas as much about creating an ethereal, immersive exploration of orchestral colour as about conveying a specific message. The men of the choir joined in, intoning the words of the 20th-century Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, like ancient monks, with ritualistic tubular bells.
The second movement, with more poetry by Pessoa, was more avant-garde, reminding us that Chin studied with the Hungarian composer György Ligeti. Very high soprano parts headed to the heavens, then sank to the depths. The men joined, with equally complex lines. This was difficult but fascinating music, challenging both singers and listeners alike. The Hallé Choir did a splendid job of delivering such demanding music. The Youth Choir sang more innocent, simpler music in the third movement, though it still retained angular lines. They sang superbly throughout the piece, with a lovely purity of tone, expertly drilled by their director, Stuart Overington. The fourth movement brought a moment of lightness, the women of the Hallé Choir coping admirably with the tricky vocal lines and uneven rhythms. An atmospheric harp line suggested that we were now drifting out in the cosmos. The Choir expertly delivered their rhythmic whispering and vocal parts in the fifth movement. Constantly rising phrases created a Babel-like tower of sound, with robust brass. There was a brief moment of unison as the voices combined at the end of the movement.
The sixth movement featured extended organ solos, superbly played by Darius Battiwalla. The music was reminiscent of the organ improvisations of the French composer and organist Olivier Latry. Chin was brought up playing the organ: her father, a Presbyterian minister in South Korea, taught her the rudiments of Western Classical music. In the seventh movement, lilting harp accompanied the Youth Choir in their superbly rhythmic, detached vocal lines, and in the tenth they sang with the pure tone of folk singers. The movement also featured a gorgeous orchestral effect at the end, glittering percussion themes cascading down. The Youth Choir brought the whole piece to an end, with a simple, quiet melody that opened a window on the cosmos, a stunning ending to an absorbing work. Kahchun Wong held up the score to the audience to acknowledge the composer, who came on stage to acknowledge the performers.
The Planets is sometimes thought of as a description of planets from an astronomical perspective. Holst instead concentrated on their astrological significance, each of the seven movements of his suite describing an aspect of the planet’s personality: Mars is the Bringer of War, Venus the Bringer of Peace, etc. (each planet named after a Greek god). In a letter to the music critic Herbert Thompson, Holst wrote that,
‘The pieces were suggested by the astrological significance of The Planets and not by classical mythology. ‘
At the suggestion of Kent Nagano, Hallé conductor from 1992 to 1999, the composer Colin Matthews wrote an extra movement for the end of The Planets, based on the planet Pluto. In 2000, Matthews wrote that ‘Pluto’s status as a planet has for some time been in doubt – it may well be declassified.’ He was right – it was declassified 6 years later. Matthews thought that Holst’s interest in astrology was probably ‘pretty peripheral’, and he himself ignored the astrological significance of Pluto. What’s important is that Matthews’ Pluto, the Renewer works artistically at the end of The Planets, and on Thursday evening it did.
The suite began compellingly with Mars, The Bringer of War, with the visceral thrill of a full orchestra playing a syncopated rhythm in 5/4 time. Wong conducted the opening slightly faster than it’s sometimes done, but with perfect control, crafting the sound beautifully. Venus, The Bringer of Peace featured a series of excellent solos from within the orchestra: Laurence Rogers (horn), Emily Davis (violin), Stéphane Rancourt (oboe) and Leo Popplewell (cello). The violins played a long-limbed melody with lovely ensemble. The harps (Marie Leenhardt and Lauren Scott) and celeste (Gemma Beeson) played with an appealing romantic flow. Beeson excelled again in the fleeting Mercury, The Winged Messenger.
Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity began with splendid brass playing. The orchestra played the great Elgarian theme, I Vow to Thee My Country, with subtle eloquence and grace. Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age, with its rocking chords, strangely brought to mind the haunting arrangement of David Bowie’s This is not America that featured in the Lazarus. No doubt the Starman would have approved.
After a fantastic brass entry, Uranus, The Magician, called to mind the cheeky, playful sorcerer’s theme from Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, although whether Holst knew that piece is sometimes disputed. To end Holst’s suite, Neptune, The Mystic, opened with four flutes playing a gorgeous theme. We were transported into the cosmos, just as we had been at the end of Unsuk Chin’s piece. The ethereal women’s voices, floating from offstage behind the organ, created a magical effect.
Colin Matthews’ Pluto, the Renewer, came in without a break on very high woodwind. The piece perfectly matched Holst’s, staying in the same sound world without falling into pastiche. There were Holstian blocks of chords, fast, ambiguous and ethereal, and playful, scurrying strings. This was virtuosic music, handled well by the Hallé musicians. It also felt modern, even though it’s now over a quarter of a century old, just as Holst’s music must have felt modern over a century ago. It ended with a final chord from the women of the Hallé Choir – in Matthews’ delightful phrase, ‘ almost as if Neptune had been quietly continuing in the background.’
Sources
Kerry Lotzof, Are we made of stardust? Natural History Museum, London
Programme notes by Unsuk Chin and Colin Matthews
Composer Unsuk Chin on The Song of the Children of the Stars (Interview) YouTube 23 May 2018
Robert Philip, The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music (Yale University Press 2020)
Repertoire
Unsuk Chin Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles
Gustav Holst The Planets
Colin Matthews Pluto, the Renewer
Performers
Kahchun Wong conductor
The Hallé orchestra
Hallé Choir Matthew Hamilton, choral director
Hallé Youth Choir Stuart Overington, director
Read on…
More by Unsuk Chin…
More by The Hallé…
A surprising link to The Planets…
Cosmic perspective….
