The Stoller Hall

We don't often visit Manchester City Centre on a Sunday. But .....

..... We had put ourselves on a waiting list for seats at a concert celebrating the opening of the Stoller Hall, part of Chethams. Amazingly, we were contacted to say .... you're in. So we went this afternoon. And it was a fabulous event.

We had seats four back from the front row. The Earl of Wessex opened the event, in informal fashion. Alumni of Chethams were there - Kitty Whately ("Lewis's" daughter, and a fine singer) and Paul Lewis (one of the world's top pianists) sang and played. Samuel West was fantastic narrating during the Shakespeare Scenario based on William Walton's music for the film Henry V - very appropriate on St George's day, Shakepeare's 453'rd birthday, and the day which has seen the first round of the French presidential election. The youngster's of Chet's did a fantastic job in the first half, conducted by Stephen Threlfall,  and then the scratch orchestra made up largely of alumni and conducted by Mark Elder, did a superb job in the second.

Quite an opening. And quite an acoustic. Clearly making the Hall happen has taken some doing, so something to celebrate. 

Quite funny as we left. A couple who had left in front of us had bumped into people they knew, who were heading into the Arena for the Ed Sheehan concert. "Yours is more sophisticated than ours" was the comment. 

The main blip is taken in cathedral gardens before we arrived at the Hall itself. Fabulous weather. And the extra (a bit rushed, just before the Steinway was moved), is of reflections on the lower lid of the piano Paul Lewis played on.