Sibelius is not an obvious candidate to have composed extensive incidental music for The Tempest. Yet he created 35 vocal and orchestral pieces for a 1926 production. The Hallé performed only five movements, taken from two concert arrangements. These included the evocation of the tree in which Ariel was imprisoned by Sycorax, which was instilled with uneasy magic; a song for Caliban that was appropriately grotesque; and a canon designed to accompany Caliban's machinations with Stephano and Trinculo that was surprisingly charismatic. Finally, the Hallé gave its musical personification of the storm, which was frightening, with the strings whipping up a veritable hurricane of noise.
Walton's Cello Concerto, featuring soloist Pieter Wispelwey, was an opportunity for the Hallé to display its luminous and ravishing quality. Jac van Steen controlled proceedings in an understated and sympathetic way. Walton's score and Wispelwey's cello made a stunning combination: sweet and lyrical in the opening Moderato, playful in the Allegro appassionato and devastatingly melancholic in the extended finale. Wispelwey seldom used strong vibrato, instead using a honey-toned, baritone-style delivery, singing lieder with subtlety and sensitivity.
In Alborada del Gracioso, the Hallé showed that Ravel's Spanish side could have far more dynamic and flamboyant outlets than Bolero. In his Rhapsodie Espagnole, Steen and the Hallé maximised the castanet rhythms and lilting strings in the brilliant orchestration. The woodwind section was especially magnificent and spontaneous in the impressionistic Prélude à la Nuit. And the dance-like Malaguena was a lively swirl of colour, contrasting with the subdued Habanera.
Ravel's fascination with the Viennese waltz was evident in La Valse, which he described thus: "Clouds whirl about. Occasionally they part to allow a glimpse of waltzing couples." At its peak, Ravel's homage to the Johann Strauss work is the essence of civilisation and grace. But the Hallé emphasised the increasingly abrasive and harmonically unsettled dance, suggesting Ravel lamented the loss of that elegant world in the wake of the first world war.
