Westminster Pilgrim; Being a Record of Service in Church, Cathedral and Abbey, College University and Concert Room, with a Few Notes on Sport

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Hallé was a great musical power at Manchester, and deservedly so. He had established a fine orchestral and choral force, and gave concerts of first-class importance every week at Manchester and in many of the great Northern towns. He was an excellent conductor, without any tricks or oddities. As a conductor of choral music he was just as successful as with the orchestra, which is not always the case. He did not train the choir, that being done for him by a chorus-master of splendid energy and resource, Charles Hecht. The choir worshipped Hallé, the Lancashire lads and lasses coming entirely under his sway. I think he was never nonplussed but once. This was during one of the many performances of Berlioz's "Faust" (a work that Hallé had really restored to life, at least in England). In the well known Serenade for Mephistopheles there is a dramatic and dangerous part for the choir, who have to come in with a sudden satirical "Ha !" in the course of the song. An enthusiastic tenor in the choir was always very alert and on the spot to those who watched him, as I often did. But on this occasion he was a little too alert, and just a moment before the whole choir should enter, he came in alone with a loud nasal "Ha !" The effect was fearful, the choir could hardly go on, the audience were convulsed, and Hallé well he would have killed the man, I am sure, if he could, and he tried to do so with his eye. I never saw that tenor again, some say he emigrated.

excerpt from 'Westminster Pilgrim; Being a Record of Service in Church, Cathedral and Abbey, College University and Concert Room, with a Few Notes on Sport' pp. 62 (269 words)

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