The Hallé & Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (Sheffield International Concert Season 2024-25)

Delyana Lazarova, winner of the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductor’s Competition, begins this concert with Debussy’s sensuous evocation of the poet Mallarmé’s dreams and desires of a faun. Delyana then directs the massed forces of the Hallé, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, a rising RNCM star and the stunning mezzo-soprano, Hanna Hipp, in Lili Boulanger’s ominous setting of Psalm 130, widely believed to be a reaction to the outbreak of World War One. Sheffield treasure, Darius Battiwalla, pulls out all the stops in music by Saint-Saёns. His first published organ work, Fantaisie, has two contrasting movements: one, full of elegance and charm and the other, strong and confident. The concert concludes with his monumental, fascinatingly-textured and extremely popular “Organ” Symphony.