Music for the Royal Fireworks
Harty introduced many new works and composers to Hallé audiences. His passion for the music of Berlioz was reflected in his programming, and he regularly performed works by contemporary composers including Bax, Moeran, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Walton. Kennedy numbers among the outstanding occasions of Harty's conductorship the English premieres of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (1930) and Shostakovich's First Symphony (1932), the Halle's first performances of Mahler's Fourth Symphony (1927) and "Das Lied von der Erde" (1930); and the first public performance of Constant Lambert's "The Rio Grande" (1929), with Harty as pianist and the composer conducting. As a composer, Harty's best-known works from this period are his lavish reorchestrations of Handel's "Water Music" and "Music for the Royal Fireworks". Harty was knighted in 1925. In 1926 he commissioned a symphony from Moeran, whose Symphony in G minor (1937) was the result, but Harty was too ill to conduct the premiere.