The Hallé orchestra has announced that it is to play a concert where the audience decides the ticket price.
The concert in question, called 'Priceless Classics', will take place at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on Sunday 6 September, and will consist of ten short pieces spanning 300 years of music and ranging from Bach and Handel to LIgeti and John Adams. At the end of it all, audience members will each be invited to pay however much they think the performance was worth!
Drinks will be allowed in the auditorium, and there will be free programmes explaining the music available in the foyer. ‘You can have a drink. You can go to the loo,' says the Hallé's chief executive John Summers. 'The whole point is that people don't need to feel constrained by the normal concert etiquette… Our concert will allow new audiences to experience the Hallé and enjoy some incredible music, but on their own terms. If people have not heard the Hallé’s music before this is the perfect event for them.'
The Hallé's main season begins at the Bridgewater Hall on 17 September, when music director Sir Mark Elder conducts the orchestra in Musorgsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov. In the meantime, for more on the 'Priceless Classics' event, click here.
