Magnificent concert should go down in history

IF anyone ever writes the classical music history of Nottingham, I hope they’ll give Friday’s Hallé concert a chapter to itself. There are many reasons why Sir Mark Elder conducting Bruckner’s 8th Symphony was a musical landmark.

For a start it’s Bruckner’s 200th anniversary this year, and 2024 is also the year that Sir Mark retires from the orchestra he has directed for nearly 25 years.

The last time the symphony was performed in Nottingham was 40 years ago – this was only its second outing in the Royal Concert Hall. It is magnificent but also very long (80+ minutes) and intensely serious.

It was written by a devoutly religious man who tended to think of the orchestra in terms of the cathedral organ he knew and played so well.

No 8 is very much a “darkness to light” symphony. Any performance has demanding territory to navigate: the anguished longing and desolation of the huge Adagio, for instance, or the grim vision of death at the end of the opening movement. Sir Mark ended his short introduction with two words to those who had never heard it before: “Good luck!”

All sections of the Hallé performed magnificently. The piece puts them under an unusually intense spotlight, especially the 18 brass players. Sir Mark brought a lifetime of rich experience to his interpretation of a work which remains an intellectual and emotional challenge. As the four main themes came together at the end there was an overwhelming feeling that the “answer” – for which the music had been searching since that darkly mysterious opening – had been reached. The cheers are still ringing in my ears.