All Hail to the Hallé ‘Ring’: Niall Hoskin salutes the third instalment of a Mancunian cycle

Review of Das Rheingold, conducted Elder, Manchester, 2016 (Hallé, 3 CDs).

November 2018, Volume 12, Number 3, 93–4.

The ‘Hallé Ring’ has now been performed in its topsy-turvy entirety at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, culminating with the performance of Siegfried this June, which coincided with the release of this 3-CD set of Das Rheingold recorded two years ago. The latter is a live, minimally-staged concert performance: there was only one, and the recording is patched from rehearsal material. That it turns out so well is in part a tribute to an orchestra which has grown in stature and confidence under Elder, and seems as comfortably at home with the long paragraphs of Wagner’s mature music dramas as many an opera house ensemble. The listener benefits greatly in terms of clarity of detail from the players being on the platform of a modern concert hall rather than crammed into the pit of an over-upholstered theatre.