Photo: Christie Goodwin
REVIEWS
Reviews:
Richard Morrison, The Times ★★★★★
February 7th 2016
'...Hacienda Classical reimagines all those dancefloor hits as mega-orchestral production numbers, mashed together in one continuous, 90-minute stomp. From 9pm to 10.30pm on Friday evening that pounding, 120-beats-per-minute pulse didn’t stop. Nor did the 70-strong Manchester Camerata, probably Britain’s most adventurous orchestra, weaned away from its Beethoven by conductor Tim Crooks’s rambunctiously stylish transformations of Blue Monday, Voodoo Ray and many other Eighties and Nineties club-thumpers.
...Not that you could hear those strings soaring (or sawing) most of the time. The atmosphere in the normally sedate Bridgewater Hall was incredible. Imagine the crowd noise during extra time in a cup final between United and City, only ten times louder and visually matched by 2,000 people in a dance frenzy. I feared for the balconies.... It’s quite a show.'
David Taylor, The Independent ★★★★★
May 31st 2017
'The Royal Albert Hall is rammed to the rafters with aged ravers and a loved up in-the-know younger crowd ready to start throwing shapes - but when Peter Hook takes the stage and delivers a moving tribute to the Manchester Arena atrocity it’s as if someone has flicked a switch.
The crowd goes respectfully silent. And then the Manchester Camerata perform Arvo Pärt’s 'Silouan’s Song' a moving, orchestral piece which brings many in the venue to tears. Others hold each other closer together. Many close their eyes in respect. It’s a poignant, heartfelt moment which will stay with me forever. As the final notes fade out the silence is broken by a huge primal roar - and we are transported away from the horrors of the present back to the happier times of the Haç.
And what a set this is. Drawing on the success of last year’s sold out concerts, Hooky, DJs Graeme Park and Mike Pickering, and Camerata conductor Tim Crooks have taken the show to another level, weaving an orchestral score together with club classics to create the ultimate hybrid....'
Read the full review here
"Amazing show both nights, I personally was blown away and the feedback from the audience is off the scale.
We have done lots of shows in the past but this one is at the top by a country mile."
- Scott Barton. Cream
