Name: The Best of John Williams
Start: 2026-04-17T19:30:00
Location: The Bridgewater Hall

Stephen Bell

The Hallé

This Scandinavian programme opens with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s enigmatic Helix, described by the composer as a spiralling ‘nine-minute accelerando’. While the pulse of the piece increases gradually throughout, the note values get proportionately longer, creating a fascinating experience, where the work seems to simultaneously speed up and slow down.

Grieg’s Piano Concerto

The Bridgewater Hall

BBC New Generation Artist and 2025 Terence Judd-Hallé Award winner, Julius Asal joins players from the orchestra for a programme built around Schumann’s Piano Quintet. The first ever piece for this combination of instruments, the outer movements are full of exuberance and extroversion, and frame a hauntingly beautiful funeral march.

Chamber Series: Julius Asal

Hallé St Peter's

FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) races against time to stop a serial killer nicknamed ‘Buffalo Bill’. Hoping it may unlock the answers to this case, she interviews prisoner Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a cannibalistic psychiatrist whose fascination with the young agent is as great as his hunger for murder.

The Silence of the Lambs: Live in Concert

Unsuk Chin composed Frontispiece as a timelapse through musical history, taking and reinterpreting the styles and flourishes of several significant composers, from Tchaikovsky and Strauss to Webern and Stravinsky. It is kaleidoscopic in its construction; contrasting fragments from vastly different musical periods work together to create something entirely unique.

Side-By-Side: The Hallé and Hallé Youth Orchestra

Exploring the musical influences that inspire our Featured Composer, Unsuk Chin, this programme will feature the UK premiere of Puzzles and Games from her opera Alice in Wonderland. Written for soprano and ensemble, and featuring text by David Henry Hwang and Unsuk Chin, it is based on Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’.

Chamber Series: Unsuk Chin

A cellist of international renown, Jan Vogler is no stranger to either of Shostakovich’s cello concertos. His 2020 recording of the Second garnered critical praise for its thoughtful introspection and ‘flawless intonation’ (The Classic Review). Shostakovich’s formidable First, generally agreed to be one of the most difficult concerto works for the instrument, performed by Jan, is certainly not to be missed.

Beethoven’s Eroica

Join us for a stroll down Broadway – a world where stories sing and feelings dance – for a spellbinding evening of unforgettable tunes, timeless favourites and absolute show-stoppers.

From Broadway, With Love

Unsuk Chin’s Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles is an intensely atmospheric work which will take you on an exploration through the stars and the infinite reaches of space. Recently revised by the composer, this concert presents the exciting world premiere of this updated version.

The Planets

This concert celebrates Jonny Greenwood’s love of orchestral string writing. In Water, the warmth of the Hallé strings envelopes two flutes and an Indian tanpura on a journey of rippling colour.

The Hallé Presents: Jonny Greenwood

Organists Anna Lapwood and James McVinnie team up to take on this immense piece, written by Jonny Greenwood to commemorate and celebrate the unique legacy of organs in historic buildings.

The Hallé Presents: 605 Years of Reverb

Manchester Cathedral

Taras Bulba, based on the Nikolai Gogol novel of the same name, was written in the midst of World War One. It leads the listener through three key moments in the life of the Russian Cossack, including the death of each of his two sons (one at his own hand), and finally, his own capture and demise.

Rush Hour: Shostakovich’s Symphony No.1

Following the lively ‘Courtly Dances’ from Britten’s opera Gloriana, Norwegian trumpeter, Tine Thing Helseth takes to the platform to perform this new, exciting work, written especially for her. Musically illustrating the biblical role of the trumpet and celebrating its vast expressive possibilities, Nico Muhly’s Doom Painting leads us on a dramatic journey through this historic instrument’s various iterations: ceremonial object for rituals and celebrations alike; harbinger of Doomsday; and jubilant instrument of the psalms.

Walton’s First Symphony

Legendary film composer, John Williams’ music has inspired and captivated audiences worldwide for decades: from the iconic, spine-tingling themes of Star Wars and Jurassic Park to the enchanting melodies of Harry Potter and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and many more.