The Hallé at The Sage Gateshead

Feb 7 2009 by Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

THE Hallé has been an orchestra playing at the top of its form since Sir Mark Elder became music director in 2000, and that impression was reinforced by a packed Hall One at The Sage on Thursday night where shouts of “bravo” added to an already strong awareness of having just heard something quite special.

Elder can make you hear even something as familiar as Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan with fresh ears. Not through some quirky attempt to pull the tempo around or exaggerate the dramatic contrasts, but by playing it straight with extreme competence – just as a conductor should do.

Not that there isn’t room for interpretive decisions, as he and the soloist for the Sibelius Violin Concerto amply demonstrated. Alina Pogostkina is a violinist of great subtlety of tone and a sharp ear for detail, requiring an orchestra sympathetic to these qualities.

The Hallé played its part beautifully, echoing each contour of phrase while allowing her to shine through even the densest orchestral passages, including the finale where Pogostkina switched on the power for an electrifying finish.

Elder and the orchestra champion the symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen and the Symphony No 5 came fresh from their recent Nielsen cycle at Manchester. “One of the greatest symphonies of the 20th Century,” Elder called it in his spoken introduction – and few conductors go so far as to have a microphone to hand for this purpose.

Completed in 1922, it was a new take on the conflict and resolution idea of the symphony. No sooner does the orchestra find its theme than a snare drum cracks the air with manic cross rhythms.

We applauded Elder back on stage at least four times but there was no encore. But who could digest a party piece on top of such a feast?

Thomas Hall