With a touching speech reminding us to cherish the Proms, live music-making and Manchester, and a tender performance of Elgar’s wistful Chanson de Nuit to symbolise the ending of an era, Mark Elder conducted his last Prom as music director of the Hallé Orchestra.
It was a beautifully poignant coda to his quarter-century association with this venerable Manchester institution, but this was no gentle slipping away into the twilight. Earlier he had conducted a performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony infused with character, passion, fearless solo playing and, yes, a fair bit of darkness and turbulence as well. It perfectly epitomised what he and the Hallé have built together: not a slick orchestral machine that operates on autopilot but an ensemble of tremendous heart and soul with a questing spirit of adventure as well as admirable finesse.
During Elder’s time the Hallé has grown in other ways too. Its three superbly trained choirs — children, youths and adults — were showcased last month in Manchester in James MacMillan’s 2023 choral piece Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia, and the same forces delivered the work again in this Proms. The text is from Dryden’s poem Alexander’s Feast, celebrating the power of music and its patron saint Cecilia, and MacMillan demonstrates that power with tumultuous compositional virtuosity.
For the separate choirs the writing is wonderfully crafted but there’s also something fierce and primordial about the otherworldly orchestral effects. The ending in particular is ecstatic in mood and almost frenzied in its impact.
To hear such polished singing coming from the children especially must have been immensely cheering for Elder. His Mancunian years may be over but his impact on the city’s musical life will continue long after he has gone.
★★★★★
Available on iPlayer and BBC Sounds
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