This recording is a celebration of what a fruitful relationship between a composer and an orchestra can be, as well as a souvenir of uneasy times. The Hallé co-commissioned Huw Watkins’ second symphony, having premiered his first; it was written amid Covid lockdowns and recorded for a filmed concert in spring 2021. Concurrently, Watkins wrote Fanfare for the Hallé, which in November 2020 was one of the first works played and recorded in the Bridgewater Hall after nine months of silence.
These energised performances, with Mark Elder conducting, are a tribute to the musicians’ resilience. In the symphony, tiny woodwind tendrils unfurl and curl around one another, creating a feeling of irresistible growth and motion, and turning into cartwheeling cascades. The slow movement has the feeling of a nocturne: gauzy, muted textures with glints of light, framing music of high agitation.
The Concerto for Orchestra, recorded at its premiere last May, is of a different era but shares this striving, hopeful sensibility. It showcases every corner of the Hallé, its clean-sounding harmonies dancing past in rhythms that intrigue the ear by skilfully wrongfooting it. Lockdown or not, Watkins’ music here speaks of optimism, spring and rebirth.
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