Thrilling Franck, good clean fun in Rimsky-Korsakov and an impressive Berliner Philharmoniker debut from Nikolai Lugansky in Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody.
Carl Vine's Five Hallucinations received its world première with dedicatee and CSO trombonist Michael Mulcahy. Gaffigan's diverse program also included a Franck tone poem and Prokofiev's Cinderella.
Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé in an unusual programme of music themed around hunting. There were many excellent performances, most memorably in Britten's Our Hunting Fathers, which added substantial depth to the evening.Assistant conductor Jamie Phillips began proceedings with a solid account of Haydn’s Symphony no. 73, “La Chasse”.
