The final Mozartfest event attended by family members was the concert in the Forum given by the Hallé Orchestra. There was a brief talk at the beginning which addressed the question of whether the orchestra had performed in Bath before; there was no record of it but it seems likely that Barbirolli brought them there at some point. Also an anecdote about an early attempt to form an orchestra in Manchester which failed because all the players recruited turned out to be flautists. Curiously, I once sang at a carol concert in the same city whose orchestra (formed from those of various local schools) was also 40% flautists (with a similar number of clarinettists and a handful of players of other instruments). Imogen Cooper reappeared to play Mozart’s concerto in B flat K456. There were some selections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the concert ended with the New World Symphony. I’m told that the performances were lively rather than routine despite the standard repertoire. All too often orchestras visit Bath, and many of their players can’t be bothered to leave London so you are listening to something formed largely of deps, but that wasn’t the impression this time.
So we got to a lot of Mozartfest concerts, and weren’t too bothered by the relative absence of Mozart himself from the programmes this year. I wonder if this increase in diversity is to make up for the main Bath Festival being shorter and with fewer classical concerts?
I’m delighted my beloved Hallé pleased the audience 🙂