“★★★★★
It’s just a pity that I can’t give this [BBC Proms] concert six stars. Right from those impassioned opening bars, it was clear that the Hallé players and their new Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong had Mahler’s Second Symphony, the ‘Resurrection’, completely in their grip. Phrasing, shaping, dynamic contrasts, instrumental colouring, ensemble unity: these were almost beyond perfection.”
NEWS
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Kahchun Wong makes his BBC Proms debut with the Hallé
The Hallé’s new Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong directs his Manchester-based forces for the first time at the Proms, joined by two star soloists: Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen and Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, who makes her much-anticipated Proms debut.
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NHK TV Broadcast: Wong's Mahler with Japan Philharmonic
The programme will be broadcast on TV Channel 2 and streamed on demand on NHK+ on Sunday, April 13, 2025, 9:00 p.m.
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor "Resurrection"
[Recorded on March 7, 2025 Suntory Hall]
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Gramophone: Kahchun Wong on The Hallé and Bruckner's Ninth
In this week's episode of the Gramophone Classical Music Podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford is joined by the Principal Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Kahchun Wong, to talk about the orchestra's relationship with its home city, Manchester, and their new recording of Bruckner's Symphony No 9.
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Japan Philharmonic: 50th anniversary Kyushu tour
Since 1975, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra has brought music to Kyushu every year without interruption—even during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2025, it celebrates 50 unbroken years, featuring nine concerts from February 8 to 19, beginning in Nagasaki and concluding in Kumamoto.
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NEW RELEASE: Bruckner: Symphony No.9
Kahchun Wong’s second release presents the first commercial recording of the latest revised four-movement version of Bruckner’s landmark final symphony by Dr. John A. Phillips, taken from a rapturously received and critically acclaimed performance at The Bridgewater Hall (The Times’ 5* review describing a ‘splendid night’ and hailing the magnificent sound of the ‘blazing Hallé).
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The Hallé announces its 2025/26 season
In his second season, Kahchun Wong presents programmes including Rachmaninov, Elgar, Beethoven, Holst, Mahler and Colin Matthews, alongside world premieres from Max Richter and Unsuk Chin. He will also welcome international guest artists to the stage, including collaborations with Truls Mørk, Anna Lapwood, Akiko Suwanai, Jan Vogler and Viktoria Mullova.
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NEW RELEASE: Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas
This album begins an innovative era for the Hallé under its new Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Kahchun Wong. Featuring the first complete The Prince of the Pagodas recording in over a decade, it highlights Wong’s passion for Balinese Gamelan, Britten’s music, and folk traditions—shaped by his extensive manuscript research at the Britten Pears Library in Aldeburgh.
NEW RELEASE
Bruckner: Symphony No.9
“Must-hear for all Brucknerians”
Kahchun Wong’s second release as Principal Conductor of the Hallé presents the first commercial recording of the latest revised four-movement version of Bruckner’s landmark final symphony.
CONCERTS
Reviews
“Sir John Barbirolli, who conducted the Hallé’s first ever performance of this symphony in 1958, reportedly quipped it was especially appropriate that he do so, given he had effectively “resurrected” the orchestra during his tenure, restoring it to prominence after a period of crisis and dwindling reputation. Wong, by contrast, joins the Hallé at the height of its powers – and on the strength of this compelling Resurrection, he knows precisely how to wield them.”
★★★★★
— Sarah Noble, The Guardian, 17 Jan 2025
“This was big rep at its beautiful best. Making his Proms debut, the Singapore-born conductor Kahchun Wong proved he is guiding Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra (as well as its Choir and Youth Choir here) expertly through a period of transition. Mark Elder hung up his baton last summer after 25 years, a charismatic figure who brought the-then 140-year-old orchestra back from the brink of bankruptcy and into the heart of Britain’s classical music scene. Wong had big shoes to fill, but this performance proved that, under his aegis, the Hallé can remain at the top of its game.”
★★★★★
— Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph, 4 Aug 2025
“The sound throughout was magnificent, as Wong's control of those Bruckner peculiarities - the slow progression, the structural cul-de-sacs - that require conductors, orchestras and listeners to show sympathy and patience. Wong especially impressed in the scherzo, weighting down the thrusting chords in the music's diabolical dances.”
★★★★★
— Geoff Brown, The Times, 27 Oct 2024
“If, as I did, one still needed clear proof of what The Hallé and Kahchun Wong are capable of together, this overwhelming account of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony was the strongest possible statement. Kahchun Wong’s direction remains at once mesmeric and maddening to watch: idiosyncratic in the mould of Kleiber, yet with steadfastly immaculate ensemble maintained across the huge extended stage. Whatever the secret is, here it works.”
★★★★★
— Rohan Shotton, Bachtrack, 17 Jan 2025
“Wong’s style combines exactitude with an almost balletic grace; every gesture – from a twitching baton for tremulousness to a sweeping hand movement for grandeur – part of his overall shaping of the sound to what was clearly (as he conducted without a score) a deeply ingrained vision of what he wanted from the Hallé forces. And he received it in spades. Mahler’s writing is, in any event, mercurial, swooshing from triumphant joy to wistful contemplation to utter despair in the space of mere bars, but Wong doubled down on this to give us microclimates of mood even within a chord – crescendo/diminuendo pairs lasted fractions of a second thanks to his scrupulous inflections.”
★★★★★
— Barry Creasy, musicOMH, 4 Aug 2025
“The symphony – undoubtedly Bruckner’s valedictory opus and arguably his greatest – thus forms a concert on its own. That alone made this evening an event to remember, but its interpretation, conducted entirely from memory, also provided an intensely illuminating experience of Wong’s approach and skills as a musician.”