Reviews of Prog Rock, Classical Music, Art Rock and Jazz
Sunday 22 March 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ Viktoria Mullova shines as the soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, and the Hallé soloists excel in Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra Viktoria Mullova with the Hallé © Alex Burns/The Hallé Sunday's concert, repeated from last Thursday, was billed as 'Mullova Plays Brahms.' It's been over 40 years …
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Thursday 12 February 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** The Hallé and Kahchun Wong shine in Beethoven's heroic symphony Cellist Jan Vogler with members of The Hallé. Credit: Alex Burns/The Hallé For a second at the start of Thursday evening's Beethoven-themed concert, it felt as if the opening piece was his Coriolan Overture. In fact, …
Continue reading "The Hallé – Beethoven’s Eroica – Live Review"
Sunday 30 November 2025 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** Manchester's oldest orchestra become the city/region's newest cultural ambassadors Akiko Suwanai, Kahchun Wong and members of The Hallé. Credit: Alex Burns/The Hallé At the beginning of the second half of Sunday afternoon's concert, Kahchun Wong, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the Hallé, announced that he and the …
Continue reading "The Hallé – Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto – Live Review"
A Memorable Year for Music: Highlights from Manchester and Beyond The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor John Storgårds. Image © Chris Payne. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the death of my father, John Charles Holmes, under whose benign and loving influence I developed a lifelong passion for music. He was the choirmaster and …
Continue reading "Review of the Year – 2024 – Classical Music"