Stravinsky’s The Firebird

30 years after it was premiered by the Hallé in 1996 to celebrate the opening of The Bridgewater Hall, we once again perform Thomas Adès’ These Premises Are Alarmed. At the time, The Observer wrote, ‘Packed with detailed, fascinating invention, Adès has devised a piece calling for the utmost, but fine-grained, virtuosity. It is also unselfconsciously, elegantly funny music.’

Gabriella Smith constantly seeks to bring us closer to nature, whether by dipping her mic underwater to sample aquatic life or by evoking the joy and grief felt in the shadow of the climate crisis. How To Be A Bird, performed by one of today’s most compelling artists, Pekka Kuusisto, explores unmapped ground. 

The stage is then packed for Thomas Adès’ Asyla, which takes us into a chaotic 1990s nightclub. 

We round off the evening by returning to Stravinsky, whose breakthrough ballet The Firebird introduced 1910s Paris to his homeland’s snow-fresh fairy stories.