In 1942, the Hallé gave a concert at the Manchester Opera House, and were joined by pianist, Moura Lympany, who performed Aram Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto, just two years after she gave the British premiere.  

One critic wrote of the concert: “Miss Lympany played every percussive section with splendid fire and energy, and whenever the rhapsodic, loosely textured work quieted to meditative passages, she charmed the audience by her delicacies of tone and phrase.” 

Sir Adrian Boult conducted the concert, and in the second half the orchestra performed Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Weber’s ‘Invitation’, and Wagner’s Meistersinger Overture.  

The same critic wrote of Boult: “Sir Adrian’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony had many great features, but we did not like the unusually slow tempo in the second movement.”