Thursday 22 Feb 2007

19.30, The Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3WS; Box office: 0161 907 9000

Tickets: £8-£34

Programme:
Richard Wagner – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91
Anton Bruckner – Symphony No 9 in D minor

Susan Bickley, one of today’s most versatile, characterful singers, is the soloist in Wagner’s five radiant love-songs. Two of them – one haunting, the other sumptuous – were studies for Tristan and Isolde; all of them are exquisitely sensual in their beauty. In Bruckner’s heroic Ninth Symphony the battle is neither lost nor won. His intended magnum opus, beginning with a titanic first movement, takes the form of a dark spiritual journey of remarkable breadth and boldness. It ends not with the grand triumphal summation he planned (of which only sketches remain) but with a glowing Farewell to Life. Cristian Mandeal scales the heights of this very special, yet unfinished, cathedral in sound.

There will be a pre-concert talk at 18.30 in the Auditorium.

More details on www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk