This most famous of fantasy ballets for all the family begins as night falls on Christmas Eve. As snowflakes fall outside, the warm glow of the open fire sends flickering shadows across the boughs of the Christmas tree and all the presents beneath. When midnight strikes, we are swept away to a fairy-tale world where nothing is quite as it seems, toy dolls spring to life, the Mouse-king and his mouse-army battle with the Nutcracker Prince and we travel through the Land of Snow to an enchanted place where the magic really begins…

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The Nutcracker

The Bridgewater Hall

The greatest romantic ballet of all time is brought to life by Tchaikovsky’s haunting and unforgettable score. From the impressive splendour of the Palace ballroom to the moon-lit lake where swans glide in perfect formation, this compelling tale of tragic romance has it all. From Odile, the temptress in black tulle as she seduces the Prince by spinning with captivating precision to the spellbound purity of the swan queen, Odette as she flutters with emotional intensity, the dual role of Odette/Odile is one of ballet’s most unmissable technical challenges.

Swan Lake

Conductor Eduardo Strausser and the Hallé are joined by enchanting soprano Alexandra Lowe for a whirl around the ballrooms of Vienna in this traditional New Year concert. Featuring the lively overture to Die Fledermaus, the playful rhythms of Tritsch-Tratsch Polka and the romantic strains of Lehar’s Vilja, this concert is the perfect way to spend a January afternoon.

Viennese New Year

You’ll be transported back to the 90s where audiences will follow the band’s meteoric rise to fame; from their humble beginnings on a Manchester council estate, to playing to more than a quarter of a million fans at their now legendary Knebworth concerts.

With more than 30 hits including ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and ‘Some Might Say’- Live Forever is an electric must see for all Oasis fans and children of the 90s.

Live Forever - The Rise of Oasis

Domonkos Csabay is a UK-based Hungarian concert pianist, chamber musician and accompanist. He studied with András Kemenes and István Lantos at the Liszt Academy Budapest, and is a graduate of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where his professors were Pascal Nemirovski and John Thwaites.

He has made several concerto appearances and has been invited to many prestigious venues and festivals, such as the Budapest Spring Festival or the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival.

Competition successes include 1st prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music competition in 2022 and 1st prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition in 2016 and special award in the Budapest Liszt Competition in 2021, as well as prizes won as a composer in Romania and as member of a Lied duo in Wales. His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on Hungarian Radio

Domonkos Csabay

Mahler’s Second Symphony was one of his most successful works during his lifetime. Inspired in part by the death of his colleague and friend Hans von Bülow, the symphony is the composer’s tribute to his life-long ideals of the beauty of resurrection and the afterlife.

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony

Dame Sarah Connolly DBE and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, 2021’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, lend their voices to this performance of Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony.

Mahler’s Second Symphony was one of his most successful works during his lifetime. Inspired in part by the death of his colleague and friend Hans von Bülow, the symphony is the composer’s tribute to his life-long ideals of the beauty of resurrection and the afterlife.

It was at Bülow’s funeral that Mahler heard the Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock hymn Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection), the refrain of which is ‘Rise again, yes, you shall rise again my dust’. These words, combined with Mahler’s own verses, provide the text for the symphony’s fifth and final movement, written for soloists and chorus combined, and probably the greatest depictions of redemption and renewal in all music. Under the baton of Kahchun Wong, this promises to be a truly memorable experience.

The Hallé - Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony

The remarkable Wayne Marshall performs double duty as conductor and pianist in the work that invented American classical music: George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

From the opening clarinet wail to the rousing climax, Gershwin’s timeless Rhapsody is one of the few truly iconic works in the canon. The composer himself played the piano part at its 1924 premiere – and tonight, Wayne Marshall serves as both soloist and conductor for this Jazz Age masterwork.

German National Orchestra

Listed among the Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and legendary doo-wop group The Drifters return to The Bridgewater Hall in 2025, ready to dazzle audiences with classic hits including Saturday Night at the Movies, You’re More Than A Number, Kissin’ In The Back Row, Come On Over To My Place, Under The Boardwalk and many more!

The Drifters

Manchester Camerata’s Artistic Partner, Daniel Pioro, has been borderline obsessed with Vivialdi’s iconic Four Seasons since he was a boy. So much so that in 2023, he managed to convince his friend, the author Sir Michael Morpurgo, to write text specifically to accompany Vivaldi’s masterwork.

With a residency at London’s Southbank Centre and his 2019 proms debut being described as “the most inventive and engaging” by The Daily Telegraph, Daniel Pioro is one of the most exciting violinists on the planet. His stunning album on the Platoon record label, Saint Boy, is a collection of ancient and contemporary, sacred and secular music for solo violin, chamber organ and string quartet. 

Manchester Camerata - Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Manchester Camerata & Daniel Pioro

After Christopher Cerrone’s The Insects Became Magnetic – a piece first prompted by the noise of computer speaker feedback and the idea that something beautiful could come from an otherwise uncomfortable sound – Roderick Cox is joined by the 2024–25 Terence Judd-Hallé Award winner, Giorgi Gigashvili for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21, which was completed a mere four weeks after his Piano Concerto No.20. Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, ranked as one of his best, provides an emotive and impassioned finale.

Tchaikovsky’s Fateful Fourth

The Hallé - Tchaikovsky’s Fateful Fourth

Lloyd Cole

Hallé wind players join Giorgi Gigashvili for two of the greatest pieces of piano and wind chamber music. Mozart wrote to his father about his Quintet: ‘I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.’ Poulenc’s quirky Trio alternates passages of deep feeling and lyricism with others that almost evoke circus music.

Hallé St Peter's Chamber Series - Giorgi Gigashvili

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, one of the world’s greatest living pianists, climbs the Everest of solo keyboard repertoire: Book II of Johann Sebastian Bach’s towering tour de force.

Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier consists of two sets of 24 preludes and fugues in every key, an epic journey made one semi-tone at a time. Put like that, ‘The 48’ sounds like a mere academic exercise. But this is music of vivid brilliance and staggering imagination – and there’s no better guide than French master Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard – The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Czech violinist Kryštof Kohout made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2024, and at the age of 21 he appeared at the Barbican playing the Berg Violin Concerto. As a laureate of the Bartók World Competition in Budapest he performed the Beethoven Concerto in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Kryštof regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and the USA at venues including Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein Vienna and festivals such as Gstaad Menuhin Festival, International Chamber Music Festival Plovdiv, and Northern Chords.

Kryštof Kohout, violin

The Magic of Motown is a celebration of the sound of a generation, recounting the enduring classics that went on to define the era, including iconic hits from the likes of Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Martha Reeves, Smokey Robinson and more.

Events in Manchester next month

The Nutcracker

The Bridgewater Hall

Swan Lake

The Bridgewater Hall

Viennese New Year

The Hallé

Live Forever - The Rise o...

The Bridgewater Hall

Live Forever - The Rise o...

The Bridgewater Hall

Domonkos Csabay

The Bridgewater Hall

Mahler’s Resurrection Sym...

The Hallé

The Hallé - Mahler’s Resu...

The Bridgewater Hall

German National Orchestra...

The Bridgewater Hall

The Drifters

The Bridgewater Hall

Manchester Camerata - Viv...

The Bridgewater Hall

Tchaikovsky’s Fateful Fou...

The Hallé

The Hallé - Tchaikovsky’s...

The Bridgewater Hall

Lloyd Cole

The Bridgewater Hall

Hallé St Peter's Chamber ...

The Bridgewater Hall

The Hallé - Tchaikovsky’s...

The Bridgewater Hall

Pierre-Laurent Aimard – T...

The Bridgewater Hall

Kryštof Kohout, violin

The Bridgewater Hall

The Magic of Motown

The Bridgewater Hall