Hallé Orchestra
The Hallé Orchestra is one of Britain's oldest symphonic ensembles. The group has been led by several conductors who have achieved international renown and has presented the world premieres of significant works from Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 55, in 1908 to Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 7 ("Sinfonia Antartica") in 1953 to Thomas Adès' These Premises Are Alarmed in 1996.
The Hallé Orchestra is named for its founder, Charles Hallé, a German who was tasked with creating a temporary orchestra for an art exhibit in Manchester and decided to keep the group together. What he at first called the Hallé Concerts were quite popular, and Hallé remained the group's conductor until 1895. Several times, the group has gone into decline but has been rescued by a charismatic and energetic new conductor. One of these was another German, Hans Richter, who arrived in 1899 and remained until 1911 despite conflicts between orchestra-goers who favored German music (and a German conductor) and backers of homegrown talent. Both World War I and II affected the orchestra's concert life, with its home venue, the Free Trade Hall, destroyed in 1940 by bombs in the German Blitz, but it bounced back each time, under Hamilton Harty (1920-1934) and, most familiar to modern audiences, Sir John Barbirolli (1948-1970), who built up a substantial catalog of Hallé Orchestra recordings even after his retirement in 1968, when he was named conductor laureate for life. The Hallé Orchestra's recording catalog extends back to the early LP era; an early release, with Barbirolli as conductor, featured Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Under conductors James Loughran, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Kent Nagano, the orchestra continued to face periods of financial uncertainty caused partly by competition with the rival BBC Northern Orchestra. The two groups agreed to share Manchester's new Bridgewater Hall, opened in 1996 by Queen Elizabeth II (the Free Trade Hall, despite poor acoustics, had been repaired after the war), and since 2000, the orchestra has enjoyed artistic stability under music director Sir Mark Elder. The orchestra's recording catalog has grown sharply since the formation of its own Hallé label in 2003; as many as four albums per year have appeared on that imprint, and the Hallé Orchestra has continued to record for EMI, NMC, and other labels. In 2019, Elder led the orchestra in a Hallé label recording of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47.
The Hallé Orchestra collaborates with a Hallé Choir, formed by Charles Hallé himself, and, since 2002, with a Hallé Youth Orchestra. In 2023, the Hallé Orchestra announced that Kahchun Wong would succeed Elder, becoming principal conductor for the 2024-2025 season. During the 2010s and 2020s, the orchestra has been extremely prolific in the recording studio, issuing 15 albums in the year 2020 alone, despite pandemic-era restrictions. Some were on the Hallé label, but the majority were on the major Warner Classics label. By 2023, when the Hallé Orchestra issued an album of works by Dobrinka Tabakova, the orchestra's recording catalog comprised more than 150 digital releases, plus many others from the analog era.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 - Debussy: Nocturnes, L. 91 (Mono Version)
Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Alceo Galliera
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Dove: A Brief History of Creation & Gaia Theory
Hallé Children's Choir, Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 21 Sep 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Barbirolli at the Proms – 1954
Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli – Conductor, David Galliver - Tenor
Classical - Released by Guild Music on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Moeran: Symphony in G Minor
Hallé Orchestra, Leslie Heward
Classical - Released by Ibis on 25 Jul 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
Symphonic Music - Released by Warner Classics on 22 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, Two Elegiac Melodies
Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by Classically on 1 Mar 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Symphonic Dances, Op. 64
Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by Classically on 1 Mar 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 (1966 Remastered)
Classical - Released by RC3 on 3 Sep 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ryan Wigglesworth: Echo and Narcissus
Hallé Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 1 Jan 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphonie No. 2 (Mono Version)
Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphonie No. 9, D. 944 (Mono Version)
Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Overtures
Classical - Released by Editions Audiovisuel Beulah on 19 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leslie Heward Conducts E J Moeran & John Ireland
Classical - Released by Dutton on 3 Oct 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Casken: Apollinaire's Bird (Live)
Stéphane Rancourt, Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder
Classical - Released by NMC Recordings on 21 Jul 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Collection of the Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven, pt. 2
Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 6 Dec 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.3 / Variations On A Theme Of Haydn
Hallé Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Classical - Released by ImpDigital on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Oboe Concerto in B-Flat Major, HWV 301
Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by Classically on 26 Sep 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70, B. 141 & Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88, B. 163
Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli
Classical - Released by Prominence Records on 4 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony NO. 9, Wab 109
Hallé Orchestra, BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Altair on 14 Jul 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Symphonie No. 7 "Antartica" (Mono Version)
Margaret Ritchie, Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphonie No. 2 (Mono Version)
Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo