A Happy New Year from the Manchester Camerata

By Peter Connors, 03 January 2016

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Reviewed at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on 1 January 2016

Strauss II, Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning Polka), Op.324

Brahms, Hungarian Dances, arranged for orchestra (1,4,6,7,13)

Mozart, Exsultate, jubilate, K165 (K158a) (Alleluia)

Strauss II, Rosen aus dem Süden (Roses from the South), Op.388

Strauss II, Perpetuum Mobile, Op.257

Lehár, Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love) (Hör ich Cymbalklänge)

Dostal, Clivia: Ich bin verliebt

Strauss II, Kaiserwalzer (Emperor Waltz), Op.437

Lehár, Giuditta: Meine Lippen sie kussen so heiss

Strauss II, Pizzicato Polka

Strauss II, Tritsch Tratsch Polka, Op.214

Korngold, Die Tote Stadt: Marietta's Lied, "Glück das mir verblieb"

Dvořák, Rusalka: Song to the moon (Mesicku na nebi hlubokem)

Strauss II, Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), Op.410

Strauss II, An der schönen blauen Donau (The Blue Danube), Op.314

Lehár, Die lustige Witwe: Vilja-Lied

Strauss I, Radetzky March, Op.228

Manchester Camerata

Alpesh Chauhan, Conductor

Olena Tokar, Soprano

Energetic Mozart and Beethoven from Manchester Camerata

Leighton Jones, 23rd May

Continuing with their ‘Made in Manchester’ series of Mozart concertos in Stoller Hall, Manchester Camerata turn to the horn concertos with soloist Martin Owen.

****1

Bavouzet’s Manchester Mozart cycle reaches its epic peak

Leighton Jones, 20th September

All good things must come to end, but Manchester Camerata's Mozart piano concerto cycle did so in exceptional style in Stoller Hall.

*****

Aakash Odedra’s Songs of the Bulbul premieres in Edinburgh

Kathy Elgin, 9th August

Based around the Sufi myth of the bulbul, a bird said to sing more sweetly as it approaches death, Odedra's new work brings together North Indian Kathak dance, Sufi myth and Islamic poetry.

****1

OperaUpClose's Flying Dutchman becomes chillingly contemporary

Nick Boston, 7th July

OperaUpClose's vision of a dystopian England through Wagner's Flying Dutchman, distilled for chamber forces, receives strong performances from the cast and Manchester Camerata players.

***11

Manchester Camerata and Jess Gillam on superb form in Buxton

Peter Connors, 19th July

Two fascinating and hugely entertaining recent pieces started a superb concert by the strings of the Manchester Camerata, joined by Jess Gillam in Glazunov's Saxophone Concerto and the Brodsky Quartet in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. Tchaikovsky crowned the concert.

*****

More Mozart, made in Manchester from the Camerata

Rohan Shotton, 25th March

Gábor Takács-Nagy and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet tackle Mozart's Piano Concertos nos. 24 and 25 with the Manchester Camerata with their usual panache.

****1

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Peter Connors

Peter has been attending concerts and operas enthusiastically since his parents took him to see The Mikado in Liverpool when he was a boy of ten and to a “family concert” given by the RLPO a year or so later. Peter studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford and Law in Manchester. After spending twenty years as a pensions lawyer in Manchester, he retrained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, which took him to Germany and to Serbia. With the onset of the pandemic he returned to the UK and now works online and frequents concert halls and theatres in the North West of England.