Following recent success in this year’s Classic FM Gramophone Awards the Hallé present their debut recording with Cristian Mandeal, appointed as the first ever Principal Guest Conductor in the orchestra’s 150 year history.

Having studied with Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich, Cristian Mandeal is now in demand across Europe.  A frequent Guest Conductor with many of the great orchestras in Germany he specializes in the Central European and core Germanic symphonic repertoire, including the works of Bruckner.

Mandeal’s work is characterized with great theatricality, deep musicality and sizzling technical skill and he brings this to bear very dramatically in this dark and moving work.

Bruckner began work on his Ninth Symphony in the autumn of 1887. He was still working on it on the day he died, nine years later on 11 October, 1896.  By the autumn of 1894, when the first three movements of the Ninth Symphony were completed in full score, Bruckner’s health had started to fail, along with his powers of concentration. There was also a marked increase in the nervous obsessive behaviour which had perplexed and worried his friends in the past.   At the same time, the devoutly Roman Catholic Bruckner meant the Ninth Symphony to be his magnum opus, the summing up of his life’s achievement, dedicated ‘dem lieben Gott’ (to dear God). He seems to have been clear about the symphony’s significance before he had written a single note.  But the spiritual journey of the Ninth Symphony as it stands is, on the whole, a very dark one and there is evidence that the composer’s belief in a merciful God wavered while he was writing the work. Certainly it’s hard to resist the impression that the prospect of death left a deep imprint on the character of this symphony.

Hallé were winners of the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Choral Recording for their release of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (CD HLD 7520)

These studio recordings were made on 19^th and 20^th July 2007.  Producer Andrew Keener; engineer Simon Eadon.

"[Mandeal] had the orchestra playing with drive, energy and sheer joie de vivre...the Hallé in supreme form under Mandeal’s expressive yet unfussy guidance. He is a conductor who demonstrably lives the music." Philip Radcliffe, Manchester Evening News

"Mandeal drew playing of warmth and flair, imposing a wholeness of musical vision that accommodated plenty of thrills and some shattering climaxes." Lynne Walker, The Independent

ANTON BRUCKNER

Symphony No.9 in D minor

Conductor
Cristian Mandeal

Catalogue number CD HLL 7524

Preview: https://orcd.co/qxzokjy