Tears for transience: Roderick Williams sings Butterworth

By Roy Westbrook, 11 December 2020

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“'Roddy' Williams approaches national treasure status for good artistic reasons”

Reviewed at Hallé St Peter's, Manchester on 11 December 2020

Britten, Russian Funeral, for brass band

Pärt, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

Butterworth, Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad (arr. Roderick Williams)

Strauss R., Metamorphosen

Roderick Williams, Baritone

The Hallé

Sir Mark Elder, Conductor

Tarmo Peltokoski conducts the Hallé in Mahler and Vaughan Williams

Leighton Jones, 16th April

Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder provide an apt, if somewhat unexpected, partner to Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

****1

Concertos – for violin and for orchestra – from the Hallé

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.

*****

Nico Muhly’s vision of the end of the world comes to Sheffield

Phil Parker, 15th March

Doom – both personal and cosmic – and its aftermath are the focus of Alpesh Chauhan’s Hallé concert at Sheffield’s City Hall.

****1

Avant-garde echoes meet minimalist soundscapes in Hallé concert

Pwyll ap Sion, 26th February

Jonny Greenwood’s genre-defying music is given a powerful performance by violinist Daniel Pioro and members of The Hallé Orchestra under Hugh Tieppo-Brunt.

****1

Celestial journeys with Kahchun Wong and the Hallé

Rohan Shotton, 19th February

Kahchun Wong returns to The Hallé for Holst and Unsuk Chin, with a postscript from Colin Matthews

***11

The Hallé brings Salonen, Grieg and Sibelius to Sheffield

Phil Parker, 23rd January

Dazzling young German pianist Julius Asal and stand-in conductor Duncan Ward breathe new life into the familiar in repertoire by Grieg and Sibelius.

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Roy Westbrook

Roy Westbrook gained a diploma in music history at London University (Morley College) and was for some years the head of music day schools at Oxford University, where he also led music summer schools. After some years leading the University's business school he has returned to music teaching and writing, and recently took part in the Arts in Residence courses on Bruckner, Mahler and Bach He is co-author (with Terry Barfoot) of a history of opera, and has taught day schools on Sibelius in Oxford and elsewhere.

Tears for transience: Roderick Williams sings Butterworth with The Hallé