As the air turns crisp, the nights draw in and amber-coloured leaves carpet the pavements, we enter that brief but spectacularly busy spell affectionately known as Spooky Season, with plenty of ways in which to mark the occasion here at The Bridgewater Hall.
For starters, we can’t wait for Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells Live in Concert, the album itself a remarkable moment within wider recording history and a celebrated musical artefact, the eerily spectral sounds of Part One, however, now inseparable from The Exorcist, first released in 1973 and still one of the most famous horror films of all time. Join us on Tuesday 22 October as an ‘expansive live group’ conducted by Oldfield’s long-term collaborator Robin Smith summon that and the rest of the record’s distinctive magic on the Bridgewater stage.
Fans of fantasy cinema can look forward to a nostalgic night at Twilight in Concert, the film played in full on the big screen as an ensemble faithfully recreate its melancholic score live to picture. An unbelievable sixteen years on from when the first installment of the Saga was released, tickets for this one are selling fast…
Sticking with the supernatural theme, you could prepare yourself for the arrival of Prague Symphony Orchestra in February 2025, the ensemble set to perform, among other pieces, Antonin Dvořák’s The Noon Witch, the Czech composer’s ‘musical portrait of the mythical child-snatching demon’. On Halloween itself, the Manchester Middays will be welcoming the ever-popular Scott Brothers Duo as they perform a programme of pieces for piano and organ, including Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus Overture, which quite appropriately translates to ‘The Bat’. And as for Bonfire Night the week after, if you’re looking to take in a spectacle of the purely musical variety, we’re thrilled to present the return of the remarkable Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. They’ll be joining us for the second instalment of our International Concert Series, treating their audience to JS Bach’s full suite of Brandenburg Concertos, offering a gripping and glittering alternative to local firework displays – and what’s more, one you’re guaranteed to experience whilst warm, comfortable, and dry, whatever the weather outside…