The Hallé launches its innovative post-work ‘Rush Hour’ concert series at The Bridgewater Hall

Running from Thu 28 Sep as part of their breathtaking 2023-24 season, the Hallé’s Rush Hour concert series welcomes city centre commuters and classical first-timers to enjoy a programme of 6pm performances by an array of world-renowned musicians, offering a peaceful and uplifting reprieve from the evening frenzy.

Following last year’s ‘strong debut’ (The Times), Birmingham Opera Company Music Director Alpesh Chauhan returns as conductor alongside new Artist-in-Residence Thomas Adès, who launches his Hallé residency with the Three-piece Suite from his delightfully salacious comic opera, Powder Her Face, on Thu 28 Sep. Judiciously sprinkled with allusions to waltzes, foxtrots and tangos, Adès’ sparklingly vivid score charts the story of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, whose infamously dynamic sex life caused uproar upon its revelation during her divorce in 1963.

Following Adès’ work as a distinct but profoundly complementary accompaniment, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony sweeps through themes of fate and providence in a ‘turbulent but ultimately transformative’ work of inimitable power, its slow movement defined by ‘one of the most glorious horn solos in the entire orchestral repertoire’. Each Rush Hour concert is just one hour long, and the bar remains open afterwards for those wishing to unwind further.

On Thu 21 Sep, Sir Mark Elder commences his final season as the Hallé’s Music Director with Mahler’s defiant, soaring Ninth Symphony, composed after the diagnosis of a heart condition which would truncate his life. Born of grief yet imbued with an irrepressible fondness for life’s countless joys, Mahler’s colossal orchestral work begins with an arrhythmic slow movement, evocative of a corrupted heartbeat, before ricocheting through contrasting middle movements and culminating in an almost frantically remorseful finale which threatens to burst with emotion, before ‘dissolving at its end to bring acceptance, resolution and peace’.

To book tickets to the Hallé’s first Rush Hour concert, click here, while tickets to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony are available here. Student tickets are available for £5.50, or just £3 if bought in person at the box office. There is also a 30% discount available for under-30s.