Debussy's La mer
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Tannhäuser Overture
They didn’t have Adult Content warnings in 1845, but if they had, Richard Wagner’s “Grand Romantic Opera” Tannhäuser, or the Song Contest at Wartburg would have qualified. Based on medieval German legend, it’s the story of a troubadour who wanders into the realm of the goddess Venus (it’s under a hill in Thuringia, apparently). But he grows tired of her pleasures and returns to Earth to court the chaste and lovely lady Elisabeth. Her hand in marriage is – naturally enough – to be the first prize in a song contest. Tannhäuser, bored of good manners, lets fly with a graphic description of pagan pleasures. Elisabeth is horrified, and a broken Tannhäuser travels to Rome to seek forgiveness for his excesses.
The Overture portrays the highlights of the story in sumptuous style. First comes the hymn of the penitent Tannhäuser and his fellow-pilgrims – quiet, then swelling to a majestic climax under cascading violins. The hymn fades into the distance, and suddenly we’re plunged into Venus’s underground pleasure-palace, all languorous sighs and surging, tingling stabs of sensation. In 1845, this was as steamy as music got. But virtue must prevail, and as worldly pleasures crash and dissolve, the pilgrims’ hymn rises again: towering triumphantly over the overture’s closing bars.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La mer
De l’aube à midi sur la mer – Jeux de vagues – Dialogue du vent et de la mer
“You do not know, perhaps, that I was destined for the career of a sailor, and that only the chances of life have led me away from it”, wrote Debussy to a friend in September 1903. But he knew that art didn’t have to be drawn directly from life. When he composed La mer, he had Hokusai’s engraving The Wave printed on the title page.
For the rest, he gave full rein to his own imagination, and his gift for musical colour. Debussy paints the sea as he experiences it, not how cliché dictates (famously, he completed the orchestration of La mer in a hotel overlooking the English Channel at Eastbourne). De l’aube à midi sur la mer (Dawn to midday on the sea) portrays the sea gradually growing in brightness and animation.
Jeux de vagues (Play of the waves) is a shimmering interlude in which woodwinds and percussion glint on the crests of dancing harps and horns. And Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of the wind and the sea) forms La mer’s stormy climax. Debussy respected the sea too well to think that he could ever pin it down; instead, he paints what he sees and feels. La mer premiered in Paris in October 1905.
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
Largo; Allegro moderato – Scherzo: Allegro molto – Adagio – Finale: Allegro vivace
By 1907 Sergei Rachmaninov was world famous as a conductor and pianist as well as a composer, but when a Russian newspaper reported that he had completed a new symphony even his close friends were surprised. “It’s true” he confirmed to his friend Mikhail Slonov, “I finished it a month ago, and immediately put it aside. It was a severe worry to me and I’m not going to think about it any more”. His First Symphony – premiered in 1897 – had been a humiliating failure. He kept the composition of his Second a secret, even to the extent of moving to Dresden to compose it.
In the Second Symphony, Rachmaninov’s imagination breathes, expands and soars as it traces the archetypal Romantic journey from darkness to light – despair to hope. After a huge, dark slow introduction, the first movement sweeps forward like a winter storm. Galloping rhythms and glowing vistas define the scherzo, while the Adagio – with its long, rapturous clarinet melody – might be the most romantic music that even Rachmaninov ever wrote. And then the finale races for home until with a great crowning melody, the symphony comes full circle and speeds to a jubilant close. It was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg on 26 January 1908.
All programme notes by Richard Bratby.
Kahchun Wong conductor
Internationally acclaimed for his electrifying stage presence and thoughtful exploration of Eastern and Western artistic legacies, Singaporean-born Kahchun Wong is Chief Conductor of Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Dresden Philharmonic. From the 2024/25 season, he succeeds Sir Mark Elder as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of The Hallé, leading one of the UK’s most prestigious orchestras while maintaining a strong presence in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
After successful debuts at the Blossom Music Festival and Severance Hall, Wong returns to The Cleveland Orchestra in January 2025 for a concert tour of Florida. Further highlights in 2025 include the release of Britten’s The Prince of the Pagodas, Bruckner’s Symphony No.9, and Mahler’s Symphony No.2 on the Hallé label, conducting Japan Philharmonic Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Tour of Kyushu, and a Dresden Philharmonic recording with Olivier Latry, titular organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral. He will also make his Royal Festival Hall debut with London Philharmonic Orchestra and appear with China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, alongside returning to Osaka Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony orchestras.
In his final appearance as Chief Conductor of Nürnberger Symphoniker, Wong led the world premiere of his orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition before an audience of 75,000 at the annual Klassik Open Air in Luitpoldhain. This sinfonia concertante version, featuring folk instrumental soloists from Singapore Chinese Orchestra, was widely broadcast on 3SAT and BR-Klassik.
The Hallé
Innovation has been central to the Hallé since its foundation in 1858 by Sir Charles Hallé, a true pioneer. His fundamental belief that music should be for everyone remains central to the orchestra’s vision today, yet the Hallé is much more than just a world-leading symphony orchestra. Its collective spirit can be felt in the variety of communities it embraces, the diversity of the ensembles it nurtures and the array of different concerts it offers.
Since Hallé’s death in 1895, his ground-breaking work has been continued by other musical legends: Hans Richter, Hamilton Harty, John Barbirolli and most recently Sir Mark Elder, who stepped down as Music Director at the end of last season after almost a quarter of a century at the helm and now assumes the mantle of Conductor Emeritus. Kahchun Wong has opened a new chapter in the Hallé’s history as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.
At the heart of the Hallé are its players, led by their two dynamic Leaders, Roberto Ruisi and Emily Davis. Hailing from over 14 different countries, our orchestra members are all extraordinary, multi-skilled individuals in their own right – soloists, chamber musicians, educators and more – who, when united in concert, create the unique and world-famous Hallé sound.
Originally based in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, the Hallé has been resident at the specially built Bridgewater Hall, one of the world’s great concert venues, since 1996 and now performs to over 100,000 people there every year. Hallé St Peter’s opened in the resurgent area of Ancoats in 2013; now including the triple RIBA Award-winning Oglesby Centre, it provides a home for the Hallé to rehearse, record and perform, as well as a base for Hallé Connect, the Hallé’s extensive education, community outreach and ensembles programme.
