The Hallé Orchestra, Cristian Macelaru, Sergio Castello Lopez

Jake Heggie Moby-Dick Suite (European Premiere)
Copland Clarinet Concerto
Bernstein West Side Story: Symphonic Dances
Gershwin Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture

Cristian Macelaru - Conductor
Sergio Castelló López - Clarinet

A favourite artist with the Hallé, Romanian conductor, Cristian Macelaru, now in his first season as Chief Conductor of WDR Cologne, returns to conduct music of his adopted country, the United States. Jake Heggie is a leading opera composer whose natural theatrical instinct is manifest in the suite from his acclaimed Moby-Dick, which receives its UK premiere. After it, the Hallé’s own Sergio Castelló López plays the concerto Copland wrote specifically for the great jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. Two pinnacles of American musical theatre in symphonic guise complete the programme: Bernstein’s West Side Story and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the latter in Robert Russell Bennett’s lush orchestration, featuring saxophone and banjo and including show-stopping numbers like ‘Summertime’.