There is so much going on in our great theatres and concert halls over the festive period. One gem in the Greater Manchester area is the Bridgewater Hall in the city centre and it is serving up a feast of festive music throughout December.
I recently bobbed along to catch the Hallé Family Christmas Concert on a Sunday morning and what a delight it was!
It was so lovely to see the audience packed with children dressed in their best Christmas outfits, all singing and dancing to the music and fun on stage.
The concert was conducted by Tim Redmond, while his brother Tom presented the story.
This revolved around Tom finding Father Christmas’s list of all the names and addresses of every child in the world in a tuba.
Then there was a frantic dash around the globe to find Santa to give him the list back before Christmas Day.
This journey took in an array of festive tunes linked to various countries.
So we first had the old favourite Silent Night, followed by the joyous Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson before taking in The Skaters’ Waltz by Waldteufel.
We were then introduced to the rousing William Tell Overture, before tinkling along to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.
One of the highlights of the first half was when the Hallé played the mesmerising Flying Theme from ET by John Williams - surely one of the most iconic film tunes of all time.
Father Christmas with Tom Redmond. Image credit: Bill Lam.
The audience then joined in a Folk Song Medley, followed by the Hallé Youth Training Choir singing It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, before ending the first half with another John Williams’ tune Somewhere In My Memory from the classic Christmas film Home Alone.
After the break we were treated to Finlandia by Sibelius, before the classical re-telling of the children’s story We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, complete with bear and lots of audience participation.
We then enjoyed Fairy Garden from Mother Goose and the nostalgic White Christmas by Irving Berlin.
We even had a visit from the big man himself as Father Christmas graced the stage with a couple of his elves.
The musical extravaganza ended with a hearty sing-song of Jingle Bells.
The whole concert was filled with laughter, singing, dancing and a lot of fun.
Actor Tom Redmond held the whole festive ensemble together and it certainly brought plenty of laughs out of the audience, especially with his GDPR and GCSE French quips.
Everyone, young and old, enjoyed the show, but it was especially pleasing to see children - including babies in arms - enjoying orchestral music in the sumptuous surrounds of the Bridgewater, proving that you are never too young, or old, to enjoy classical music.
