Review: Hallé Viennese Concert ****

The Hall played the Strausses, Supp, Lehr and Lanner with discipline, sumptuous string tone, and a fairly serious face. This is, after all, exquisitely crafted music that works best when respected – some of it attracted admiration from heavyweights such as Wagner, Mahler and Schoenberg.

In addition to the expected familiar pieces, it was good to hear Lanner's New Year Galop, in which half a dozen tunes are squeezed into three minutes, and Gypsy Fiddles Playing, in which Lehr demonstrated his superiority over the Strausses in the craft of creating highly-charged Hungarian atmosphere.

Conductor Stephen Bell, who seems to be cornering the market in classical spectaculars and proms-style galas, presided with authority and avuncular jollity.

Soprano soloist Natasha Marsh – using a microphone – looked and sounded captivating and coquettish, but showed no depth of feeling. I suppose it is a sign of the times that subtle and contrasting arias such as Vilja and Adele's Laughing Song have to be delivered as though they are no more than baubles from a West End musical.

St George's Concert Hall, Bradford