St James's Hall
Encyclopedia
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones
, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace
. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street
and Piccadilly
, and Vine Street
and George Court. There was a frontage on Regent Street, and another in Piccadilly. Taking the orchestra into account, the main hall had seating for slightly over 2,000 persons. It had a grand hall 140 feet (43 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) broad, the seating was distributed between ground floor, balcony, gallery and platform and it had excellent acoustics. On the ground floor were two smaller halls, one 60 feet (18.3 m) square; the other 60 feet (18.3 m) by 55 feet (16.8 m). The Hall was decorated in the 'Florentine' style, with features imitating the great Moorish Palace of the Alhambra. The Piccadilly facade was given a Gothic design, and the complex of two restaurants and three halls was hidden behind Nash's Quadrant. Sir George Henschel
recalled its 'dear old, uncomfortable, long, narrow, green-upholstered benches (pale-green horse-hair) with the numbers of the seats tied over the straight backs with bright pink tape, like office files.'
The Hall was built jointly by two music publishing firms, Chappell & Co.
and Cramer & Co.
, in the hope of attracting the growing audiences for fine musical performances that attended the Crystal Palace and the halls being built in the provinces. It stood empty for nearly a year after its opening. For almost half a century thereafter, the Hall was London's principal concert hall, to be succeeded by Queen's Hall
in the 1900s and later by Wigmore Hall
, the Royal Albert Hall
and Royal Festival Hall
. It became famous for its 'Monday Pops' concerts and Ballad Concerts, as the home of the Philharmonic Society and the Christy Minstrels and for the many famous conductors and performers who gave important performances there.
. Sims Reeves
sang Beethoven's 'Adelaide' there (the first of many successes), accompanied by Arabella Goddard
, in a concert at the end of May 1858. According to Reeves' biographer, 'The hall itself met with general approval, but the arrangements for chorus and orchestra were severely condemned.' In the same year, one of the first complete performances of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion to be heard in England was given there under William Sterndale Bennett
, with Sims Reeves
, Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
, Charlotte Sainton-Dolby
and Willoughby Weiss
.
The hall became known for its continuous production of blackface minstrelsy from 1862 until 1904. Known as the Christy Minstrels and later the Moore and Burgess Minstrels, the Hall's resident minstrel troupe performed in one of the smaller halls located on the ground floor near the restaurant, below the main hall. Gilbert and Sullivan
's 1893 comic opera
, Utopia, Limited
, contains a joke in which the Court of St. James's
is purposely confused with St. James's Hall and its minstrel shows, and a parody of a minstrel number is included in the same scene.
In residence for the whole active life of the hall, the Minstrels had their permanent home there, but their interests often conflicted with those of the main hall. In January 1890, for instance, George Bernard Shaw
wrote:
Only a fortnight later, the band, at first subdued, broke out in a 'wild strain of brazen minstrelsy' during the final bars of the funeral march in the Eroica Symphony. After the movement was applauded a member of the audience began calling out that a complaint should be lodged, and won general approval, hear, hear, and people standing up to look at him. On one occasion Lady Henschel
and her daughter went to hear Joseph Joachim
play at a Saturday 'Pop', but were so aware of the 'rhythmic gay sounds, thumping and shimmering away in a most enlivening manner', that they decided to go and hear Moore and Burgess instead.
, one of the brothers in the Chappell & Co.
firm of Bond Street
music publishers, who concentrated on selling brass and woodwind instruments, together with his brother Thomas, devised the idea of the Monday Popular Concerts, which established the fame and popularity of the hall. George Bernard Shaw
reported that the concerts at the hall contributed greatly to the spread and enlightenment of musical taste in England. Monday 'Pops' were held in the evening, and Saturday 'Pops' on Saturday afternoons. These were chamber-concerts. Their programmes were almost exclusively 'classical', and consisted of piano and organ recital, singers, violinists, string quartets and other chamber ensemble. They were managed by John Boosey, and later by William Boosey, together with Chappell. In 1861 the Musical World observed: 'classical chamber music of the highest order is brought week after week within the reach of the shilling paying masses as it has now been no less than fifty-two times at St James's Hall.... swelling the total of the Monday Popular Concerts to no less than sixty-three within two years of their foundation.... Such a result is unparalleled in the history of musical entertainments.'
George Bernard Shaw gives an interesting narrative of the 'Pops' between 1888 and 1894. Shaw admired the Joachim Quartet, led either by Joachim himself or often by Mme Wilma Norman Neruda (Lady Hallé) (and later still by Eugène Ysaÿe
), with ('modest') L. Ries (2nd violin), ('solemn') Herr Strauss (viola) and the ('gentle') cellist Alfredo Piatti. This was certainly the 'star turn' in that period. They frequently played full works, or even groups of works, at the 'Pops': their larger ensemble was often heard in the Beethoven septet. Among soloists heard in 1888-90 (the 31st and 32nd seasons) were Charles Hallé
, Alma Haas (Beethoven op. 110), Agnes Zimmerman (Waldstein), Edvard Grieg
, Bernhard Stavenhagen
(Schumann
Papillons), Arthur de Greef
(Chopin), pianists; Joseph Joachim
(Brahms), Mme Norman Neruda, (Bach concerto for 2 violins), violin; Bertha Moore, Charles Santley
(Der Erlkönig
, To Anthea), Marguerite Hall (Schubert, Brahms, Henschel), singers. The concerts were mixed, often consisting of a chamber-work, some songs, and instrumental solos.
The Hall became known for the "London Ballad Concerts", which began in the 1860s and moved in January 1894 to Queen's Hall. They "were started... by Messrs Boosey 'for the performance of the CHOICEST ENGLISH VOCAL MUSIC by the MOST EMINENT ARTISTS'."
of London, founded 1813, until 1869 gave its concerts in its rooms at Hanover Square, which had seating for only about 800. The Society decided to move permanently to St James's Hall, and a complimentary additional concert, held at St James's Hall, was given to its subscribers at the end of the 1868-69 season. Charles Santley
, Charles Hallé
, Thérèse Tietjens and Christina Nilsson
were the soloists. When the move was made, the Society remodelled its charges to obtain a wider audience and compete with the Crystal Palace
and other large venues, and introduced annotated programmes. The Society remained at the hall until 28 February 1894, when it moved to the Queen's Hall.
There were major events in 1870–71, when a Beethoven
centenary season was held, with all nine symphonies performed. The bust of Beethoven by Johann Nepomuk Schaller was presented to the Society and collected (in Pest, Hungary) by Sir William Cusins. It was exhibited at the Society's first concert in 1871, and a replica was placed at the front of the platform at every Philharmonic concert thereafter. The Society's Gold Medal incorporated an image of the bust. Another major event of 1871 was the original presentation of medals to ten distinguished musicians.
conducted a concert of his music. In 1873 Brahms
's A German Requiem had its English premiere; Edward Lloyd
first sang before the Society; and Hans von Bülow
made his London debut, playing Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto
and Bach
's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. In 1874, Pablo de Sarasate
and Camille Saint-Saëns
played there, and in 1875, August Wilhelmj
. Other Philharmonic Society highlights of the next few years included performances by George Henschel
, Xaver Scharwenka
, Émile Sauret
, Joseph Joachim
and Edward Dannreuther
.
Changes of management were introduced in 1881 following the Society's recovery from a financial crisis. Concerts were moved from Monday to Thursday evenings, to make way for the Monday Night Popular Chamber-Concerts, known as the 'Pops'. The 1881 season included two performances of Berlioz
's Roméo et Juliette
; Scharwenka gave the British premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, and Eugen d'Albert
and Emma Albani
appeared before the Society. Over the next two years many choral works were given with the Philharmonic Choir, including works by Franz Liszt
, Anton Rubinstein
, Weber
, Beethoven and Brahms.
In 1883, Cusins retired as conductor, and for one season there was a team of honorary conductors. Antonín Dvořák
conducted his Sixth Symphony
(although it was referred to as "Symphony No. 1") in March 1884. Sir Arthur Sullivan
conducted the concerts of 1884–87, and as guest conductors, Dvořák, Moritz Moszkowski
and Saint-Saëns were heard in works written for the Society. Among the soloists were Tivadar Nachéz
, Fanny Davies
, Lillian Nordica
, Ella Russell, Emma Nevada
, Józef Hofmann
and František Ondříček
. Most notably Saint-Saëns's Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)
written at the behest of the Society, and premiered there on May 19, 1886.
F. H. Cowen
succeeded Sullivan as conductor from 1888–92. In his first season Edvard Grieg
played his Piano Concerto in A minor
and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
made his first appearance before an English audience, introducing two works. Johan Svendsen
and Charles-Marie Widor
also conducted in that season, and Clara Schumann
made her farewell performance to the Society. Tchaikovsky returned in 1889 to conduct his Piano Concerto No. 1
with Wassily Sapellnikoff
making his English debut (who three years later created a furor with the Liszt E flat concerto
); and Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Eugène Ysaÿe
also made their English debuts. In 1890, Dvořák conducted his Fourth Symphony
. Paderewski
, who gave four recitals at St. James's Hall for his début in 1890, returned there for the Society in 1891 to perform the Saint-Saëns' C minor, and the Rubinstein D minor, concerti. Leonard Borwick
and Frederic Lamond also performed there for the Society. Cowen gave many concerts of contemporary English composers such as Sullivan, Hubert Parry
, Alexander Mackenzie, Charles Villiers Stanford
, and of his own works.
In 1892 Alexander Mackenzie succeeded Cowen. In the 1893 season, Tchaikovsky gave the English premiere of his Fourth Symphony
, Saint-Saëns conducted his Le Rouet d'Omphale and played his G minor concerto
, and Max Bruch
conducted his own Second Violin Concerto
with Ladislas Gorski as soloist. In November 1893, a presentation was made to the Society's Secretary Francesco Berger in appreciation of ten years service. Soon afterwards, Queen's Hall opened its doors, and the Society moved there in the following February.
often conducted Richard Wagner
concerts at St. James's Hall, beginning in 1877. These 'Orchestral Festival Concerts' (established regularly in 1879 by the violinist Hermann Franke), which commenced after Easter, were among the chief rivals to the Philharmonic Society programmes. At the time of Arthur Sullivan's resignation of the Philharmonic conductorship, the Society suggested to Richter that he might become its conductor, and the two series of concerts might be amalgamated under the Society's supervision. Richter did not accept the plan.
In addition to Richter's series, there was also a nine-year winter series of subscription concerts established and conducted by George Henschel
, including a full cycle of Beethoven symphonies in one year, and a rare performance of Richard Wagner
's Symphony. The content was planned against a 'permanent background' of Beethoven and Brahms. Helen Henschel refers to 'the famous Wagner cat' which inhabited the Hall. It was said to walk onto the stage during rehearsals whenever any work by Wagner was being played, but never otherwise.
Shaw refers to both, noting that Richter's concerts were too expensive, and that Henschel's orchestra was too small.
author Charles Dickens
presented a final series of "Farewell Readings," at the hall, which commenced on the evening of October 6, with a program devoted to "Doctor Marigold" (from the Christmas Story) and "The Trial" from Pickwick. He had settled with his tour managers, Chappell & Co., on 100 readings for the princely sum of £8,000 pounds. Attendees would receive printed programs and Chappell's advertisements included the following statement:
The stalls were priced at five shillings, balcony seats at three, and general admission at one shilling. A new amenity, sofa stalls ("of which there will be a limited number only"), went for seven shillings.
The following year Dickens would have to cut a provincial tour short after collapsing showing symptoms of a mild stroke in Preston on April 22, 1869. When he had regained sufficient strength, he arranged, with medical approval, for a series of readings to partially make up to Chappell & Co. what they had lost due of his illness. There were to be twelve final performances, running starting on January 11, 1870 back at the hall. Dickens would give his last public reading here at 8:00 pm on the 15 March 1870. He died shortly thereafter on 9 June, having suffered another stroke.
, established in 1875 under a founding committee including Sir George Grove
and Sir John Stainer
, had as a primary aim the introduction to England of Bach
's Mass in B Minor. With a choir of between 200 and 250 voices, including the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind
, and under the baton of her husband, conductor Otto Goldschmidt
, the Mass came to performance in April 1876 at St James's Hall, and a second performance was given a month later.
Henry J. Wood performed the E minor organ concerto of Ebenezer Prout
at the Hall with an orchestra under Joseph Barnby
, in the late 1880s. Although the performance earned him much praise, he referred to the instrument as 'that terrible box of whistles at St. James's Hall'. This had not seemed to bother Camille Saint-Saëns
when he premiered his third Symphony
there (in which two sections make extensive use of the organ) in 1886. Saint-Saëns was a fine organist, and was titulaire of Église de la Madeleine
in Paris
. If he had any objections to the organ of St. James Hall for the premier of his symphony, they do not appear in his writings.
The Stock Exchange Orchestral Society, founded 1883, originally played in the Prince's Hall Piccadilly, but transferred to St. James's Hall until 1894, when they moved to Queen's Hall. In December 1893 Harry Plunket Greene
and Leonard Borwick
began their celebrated partnership in lieder recitals at the hall, which continued well into the new century. In 1895, the 16-year-old pianist Mark Hambourg
gave a concert there under Henry J. Wood, in which he played three piano concerti.
in 1902, when the hall was owned by a private company. The controlling share was held by T. P. Chappell, chairman of Chappell's
: he turned down a good offer to buy the hall because Boosey felt strongly about its old connection with the Saturday and Monday 'Pops' and the Chappell ballad concerts. But Chappell died in June 1902, and the other shareholders accepted a new offer without consulting Boosey, who was badly put out. Then Queen's Hall
came into the market, and a friend of Boosey's acting in that interest pointed out that Queen's Hall would be worth much more if St James's Hall ceased to operate. Boosey realised that Messrs Chappell could benefit most by becoming lessors of Queen's Hall, and it was immediately arranged with the result that Chappell's controlled Queen's Hall from 1902 down to 1944. The 11-year-old violinist Franz von Vecsey
made his English debut at St James's Hall in April or early May 1904. It continued in use until February 1905 when it was demolished. The Piccadilly Hotel was afterwards built on the site.
, (on a site previously occupied by St Paul's Church) had its foundation stone laid by the Lord Mayor and Sherriffs on 20 April 1907. It opened on 25 April 1908 with a series of promenade concerts performed by the newly formed St. James's Hall Orchestra under the musical directorship of Mr. Lyell Taylor.
Owen Jones (architect)
Owen Jones was a London-born architect and designer of Welsh descent. He was a versatile architect and designer, and one of the most influential design theorists of the nineteenth century...
, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
and Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...
, and Vine Street
Vine Street, Westminster
Vine Street is a thoroughfare in Westminster, London, England. Its main claim to notability is as one of the streets on the standard London Monopoly board....
and George Court. There was a frontage on Regent Street, and another in Piccadilly. Taking the orchestra into account, the main hall had seating for slightly over 2,000 persons. It had a grand hall 140 feet (43 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) broad, the seating was distributed between ground floor, balcony, gallery and platform and it had excellent acoustics. On the ground floor were two smaller halls, one 60 feet (18.3 m) square; the other 60 feet (18.3 m) by 55 feet (16.8 m). The Hall was decorated in the 'Florentine' style, with features imitating the great Moorish Palace of the Alhambra. The Piccadilly facade was given a Gothic design, and the complex of two restaurants and three halls was hidden behind Nash's Quadrant. Sir George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
recalled its 'dear old, uncomfortable, long, narrow, green-upholstered benches (pale-green horse-hair) with the numbers of the seats tied over the straight backs with bright pink tape, like office files.'
The Hall was built jointly by two music publishing firms, Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
and Cramer & Co.
Cramer & Co.
J. B. Cramer & Co. was a musical instrument manufacturing, music-publishing and music-selling business in London.It was founded in 1824 by the musician Johann Baptist Cramer in partnership with Robert Addison and Thomas Frederick Beale, the company then being known as Cramer, Addison & Beale...
, in the hope of attracting the growing audiences for fine musical performances that attended the Crystal Palace and the halls being built in the provinces. It stood empty for nearly a year after its opening. For almost half a century thereafter, the Hall was London's principal concert hall, to be succeeded by Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
in the 1900s and later by Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
and Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
. It became famous for its 'Monday Pops' concerts and Ballad Concerts, as the home of the Philharmonic Society and the Christy Minstrels and for the many famous conductors and performers who gave important performances there.
Opening
The first performance at the hall was The Hymn of Praise by the Vocal Association, under Julius BenedictJulius Benedict
Sir Julius Benedict was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career.-Life:...
. Sims Reeves
Sims Reeves
John Sims Reeves , usually called simply Sims Reeves, was the foremost English operatic, oratorio and ballad tenor vocalist of the mid-Victorian era....
sang Beethoven's 'Adelaide' there (the first of many successes), accompanied by Arabella Goddard
Arabella Goddard
Arabella Goddard was an English pianist of great renown in the middle to late 19th century.She was born and died in France. Her parents, Thomas Goddard, an heir to a Salisbury cutlery firm, and Arabella née Ingles, were part of an English community of expatriates living in Saint-Servan near...
, in a concert at the end of May 1858. According to Reeves' biographer, 'The hall itself met with general approval, but the arrangements for chorus and orchestra were severely condemned.' In the same year, one of the first complete performances of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion to be heard in England was given there under William Sterndale Bennett
William Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school-Biography:...
, with Sims Reeves
Sims Reeves
John Sims Reeves , usually called simply Sims Reeves, was the foremost English operatic, oratorio and ballad tenor vocalist of the mid-Victorian era....
, Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington was the leading English concert and operatic soprano of the 1860s.- Early life :Born in Preston, England, in 1834, Helen Sherrington studied singing at Rotterdam and Brussels...
, Charlotte Sainton-Dolby
Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby
Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby , was an English contralto.She was born in London, studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1832 to 1837, Crivelli being her principal singing-master. In 1837 she was elected to a King's scholarship, and first appeared at a Philharmonic concert in 1841...
and Willoughby Weiss
Willoughby Weiss
Willoughby Hunter Weiss was an English oratorio and opera singer and composer. He became one of the most celebrated bass singers of the 19th century, and sang in the premieres of many English works....
.
The Christy Minstrels
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's 1893 comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
, Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...
, contains a joke in which the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
is purposely confused with St. James's Hall and its minstrel shows, and a parody of a minstrel number is included in the same scene.
In residence for the whole active life of the hall, the Minstrels had their permanent home there, but their interests often conflicted with those of the main hall. In January 1890, for instance, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
wrote:
At the Hallé orchestral concert... I was inhumanly tormented by a quadrille band which the proprietors of St James's Hall (who really ought to be examined by two doctors) had stationed within earshot of the concert-hall. The heavy tum-tum of the basses throbbed obscurely against the rhythms of Spohr and Berlioz all the evening, like a toothache through a troubled dream; and occasionally, during a pianissimo, or in one of Lady Hallé's eloquent pauses, the cornet would burst into vulgar melody in a remote key, and set us all flinching, squirming, shuddering, and grimacing hideously.'
Only a fortnight later, the band, at first subdued, broke out in a 'wild strain of brazen minstrelsy' during the final bars of the funeral march in the Eroica Symphony. After the movement was applauded a member of the audience began calling out that a complaint should be lodged, and won general approval, hear, hear, and people standing up to look at him. On one occasion Lady Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
and her daughter went to hear Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
play at a Saturday 'Pop', but were so aware of the 'rhythmic gay sounds, thumping and shimmering away in a most enlivening manner', that they decided to go and hear Moore and Burgess instead.
Monday and Saturday 'Pops' and Ballad Concerts
Samuel Arthur ChappellChappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
, one of the brothers in the Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
firm of Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
music publishers, who concentrated on selling brass and woodwind instruments, together with his brother Thomas, devised the idea of the Monday Popular Concerts, which established the fame and popularity of the hall. George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
reported that the concerts at the hall contributed greatly to the spread and enlightenment of musical taste in England. Monday 'Pops' were held in the evening, and Saturday 'Pops' on Saturday afternoons. These were chamber-concerts. Their programmes were almost exclusively 'classical', and consisted of piano and organ recital, singers, violinists, string quartets and other chamber ensemble. They were managed by John Boosey, and later by William Boosey, together with Chappell. In 1861 the Musical World observed: 'classical chamber music of the highest order is brought week after week within the reach of the shilling paying masses as it has now been no less than fifty-two times at St James's Hall.... swelling the total of the Monday Popular Concerts to no less than sixty-three within two years of their foundation.... Such a result is unparalleled in the history of musical entertainments.'
George Bernard Shaw gives an interesting narrative of the 'Pops' between 1888 and 1894. Shaw admired the Joachim Quartet, led either by Joachim himself or often by Mme Wilma Norman Neruda (Lady Hallé) (and later still by Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
), with ('modest') L. Ries (2nd violin), ('solemn') Herr Strauss (viola) and the ('gentle') cellist Alfredo Piatti. This was certainly the 'star turn' in that period. They frequently played full works, or even groups of works, at the 'Pops': their larger ensemble was often heard in the Beethoven septet. Among soloists heard in 1888-90 (the 31st and 32nd seasons) were Charles Hallé
Charles Hallé
Sir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
, Alma Haas (Beethoven op. 110), Agnes Zimmerman (Waldstein), Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
, Bernhard Stavenhagen
Bernhard Stavenhagen
Bernhard Stavenhagen was a German pianist, composer and conductor. His musical style was influenced by Franz Liszt, and as a conductor he was a strong advocate of new music.-Biography:...
(Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
Papillons), Arthur de Greef
Arthur De Greef
Arthur De Greef was a Belgian pianist and composer.Born in Louvain, he won first prize in a local music composition when he was only 11, and subsequently enrolled at the Brussels Conservatoire...
(Chopin), pianists; Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
(Brahms), Mme Norman Neruda, (Bach concerto for 2 violins), violin; Bertha Moore, Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
(Der Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking or "Erlkönig"...
, To Anthea), Marguerite Hall (Schubert, Brahms, Henschel), singers. The concerts were mixed, often consisting of a chamber-work, some songs, and instrumental solos.
The Hall became known for the "London Ballad Concerts", which began in the 1860s and moved in January 1894 to Queen's Hall. They "were started... by Messrs Boosey 'for the performance of the CHOICEST ENGLISH VOCAL MUSIC by the MOST EMINENT ARTISTS'."
The Philharmonic Society
The Philharmonic SocietyRoyal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
of London, founded 1813, until 1869 gave its concerts in its rooms at Hanover Square, which had seating for only about 800. The Society decided to move permanently to St James's Hall, and a complimentary additional concert, held at St James's Hall, was given to its subscribers at the end of the 1868-69 season. Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
, Charles Hallé
Charles Hallé
Sir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
, Thérèse Tietjens and Christina Nilsson
Christina Nilsson
Christina Nilsson, Countess de Casa Miranda, was a Swedish operatic soprano. She possessed a brilliant bel canto technique and was considered a rival to the Victorian era's most famous diva, Adelina Patti...
were the soloists. When the move was made, the Society remodelled its charges to obtain a wider audience and compete with the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
and other large venues, and introduced annotated programmes. The Society remained at the hall until 28 February 1894, when it moved to the Queen's Hall.
There were major events in 1870–71, when a Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
centenary season was held, with all nine symphonies performed. The bust of Beethoven by Johann Nepomuk Schaller was presented to the Society and collected (in Pest, Hungary) by Sir William Cusins. It was exhibited at the Society's first concert in 1871, and a replica was placed at the front of the platform at every Philharmonic concert thereafter. The Society's Gold Medal incorporated an image of the bust. Another major event of 1871 was the original presentation of medals to ten distinguished musicians.
Notable Philharmonic performers at St James's Hall
In 1871, Charles GounodCharles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
conducted a concert of his music. In 1873 Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's A German Requiem had its English premiere; Edward Lloyd
Edward Lloyd (tenor)
Edward Lloyd was a British tenor singer who excelled in concert and oratorio performance, and was recognised as a legitimate successor of John Sims Reeves as the foremost tenor exponent of that genre during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.- Early training in choral tradition :Edward...
first sang before the Society; and Hans von Bülow
Hans von Bülow
Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard...
made his London debut, playing Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto
Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil...
and Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. In 1874, Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...
and Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
played there, and in 1875, August Wilhelmj
August Wilhelmj
August Wilhelmj was a German violinist and teacher.Wilhelmj was a child prodigy. When Henriette Sontag heard him in 1852, when he was seven, she said "You will be the German Paganini"...
. Other Philharmonic Society highlights of the next few years included performances by George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
, Xaver Scharwenka
Xaver Scharwenka
Franz Xaver Scharwenka was a German pianist, composer and teacher. He was the brother of Philipp Scharwenka , who was also a composer and teacher of music.- Life and career :...
, Émile Sauret
Émile Sauret
Émile Sauret was a French violinist and composer.-Biography:He began studying violin at the Conservatory at Strasburg at the age of six and began concertizing two years later. He studied under Charles de Bériot and later became the student of Henri Vieuxtemps.Sauret made his American debut in 1872...
, Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
and Edward Dannreuther
Edward Dannreuther
Edward Dannreuther was a German pianist and writer on music resident from 1863 in England. He trained as a musician at the Conservatoire at Leipzig, where he was a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, a severe critic of the music of Wagner and Franz Liszt...
.
Changes of management were introduced in 1881 following the Society's recovery from a financial crisis. Concerts were moved from Monday to Thursday evenings, to make way for the Monday Night Popular Chamber-Concerts, known as the 'Pops'. The 1881 season included two performances of Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette (symphony)
Roméo et Juliette is a "symphonie dramatique", a large-scale choral symphony by French composer Hector Berlioz, which was first performed on 24 November 1839. The libretto was written by Émile Deschamps and the completed work was assigned the catalogue numbers Op. 17 and H.79...
; Scharwenka gave the British premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, and Eugen d'Albert
Eugen d'Albert
Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria...
and Emma Albani
Emma Albani
Dame Emma Albani DBE was a leading soprano of the 19th century and early 20th century, and the first Canadian singer to become an international star. Her repertoire focused on the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner...
appeared before the Society. Over the next two years many choral works were given with the Philharmonic Choir, including works by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
, Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
, Beethoven and Brahms.
In 1883, Cusins retired as conductor, and for one season there was a team of honorary conductors. Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
conducted his Sixth Symphony
Symphony No. 6 (Dvorák)
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák composed his Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60, B. 112, in 1880. It is dedicated to Hans Richter, who was the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. With a performance time of approximately 40 minutes, the four-movement piece was one of the first of...
(although it was referred to as "Symphony No. 1") in March 1884. Sir Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
conducted the concerts of 1884–87, and as guest conductors, Dvořák, Moritz Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski was a German Jewish composer, pianist, and teacher of Polish descent. Ignacy Paderewski said, "After Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano"...
and Saint-Saëns were heard in works written for the Society. Among the soloists were Tivadar Nachéz
Tivadar Nachéz
Tivadar Nachéz was a Hungarian violinist and composer for violin who had an international career, but made his home in London during his career....
, Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies was an English pianist who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin...
, Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country....
, Ella Russell, Emma Nevada
Emma Nevada
Emma Nevada was an American operatic soprano particularly known for her performances in operas by Bellini and Donizetti and the French composers Ambroise Thomas, Charles Gounod, and Léo Delibes...
, Józef Hofmann
Józef Hofmann
Josef Casimir Hofmann was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.-Biography:...
and František Ondříček
František Ondrícek
František Ondříček was a Czech violinist and composer. He gave the first performance of the Violin Concerto by Antonín Dvořák, and his achievements were recognised by the rare award of honorary membership of the Philharmonic Society of London in 1891.Ondříček was born in Prague, the son of the...
. Most notably Saint-Saëns's Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)
Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)
The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic zenith of his career. It is also popularly known as the "Organ Symphony", even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out...
written at the behest of the Society, and premiered there on May 19, 1886.
F. H. Cowen
Frederic Hymen Cowen
Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen , was a British pianist, conductor and composer.-Early years:Cowen was born Hymen Frederick Cohen at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last child of Frederick Augustus Cohen and Emily Cohen née Davis. His siblings were Elizabeth Rose Cohen ; actress,...
succeeded Sullivan as conductor from 1888–92. In his first season Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
played his Piano Concerto in A minor
Piano Concerto (Grieg)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...
and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
made his first appearance before an English audience, introducing two works. Johan Svendsen
Johan Svendsen
Johan Severin Svendsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania , Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark....
and Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher.-Life:Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889...
also conducted in that season, and Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
made her farewell performance to the Society. Tchaikovsky returned in 1889 to conduct his Piano Concerto No. 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The first version received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky's desired pianist....
with Wassily Sapellnikoff
Wassily Sapellnikoff
Wassily Sapellnikoff , was a Russian pianist.A more true transliteration of his name is Vasily Lvovich Sapelnikov, however when he concertised in England he chose the above version....
making his English debut (who three years later created a furor with the Liszt E flat concerto
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Liszt)
Franz Liszt composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, S.124 over a 26-year period; the main themes date from 1830, while the final version dates 1849. The concerto consists of four movements, which are performed without breaks in between, and lasts approximately 20 minutes...
); and Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
also made their English debuts. In 1890, Dvořák conducted his Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Dvorák)
The Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 13, B. 41 is classical composition by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.-The work:Dvořák composed his fourth symphony between January and March of 1874. The influence of Wagner can clearly be heard in this symphony. The principal theme of the second movement is a...
. Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...
, who gave four recitals at St. James's Hall for his début in 1890, returned there for the Society in 1891 to perform the Saint-Saëns' C minor, and the Rubinstein D minor, concerti. Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick was an English concert pianist especially associated with the music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.- Early training and debuts :...
and Frederic Lamond also performed there for the Society. Cowen gave many concerts of contemporary English composers such as Sullivan, Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
, Alexander Mackenzie, Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
, and of his own works.
In 1892 Alexander Mackenzie succeeded Cowen. In the 1893 season, Tchaikovsky gave the English premiere of his Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. The symphony's first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Saint Petersburg on February 10 /February 22 1878, with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor.- Form :The symphony is in four...
, Saint-Saëns conducted his Le Rouet d'Omphale and played his G minor concerto
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was composed in 1868 and is probably Saint-Saëns' most popular piano concerto. It was dedicated to Madame A. de Villers née de Haber. At the première, the composer was the soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducted the orchestra...
, and Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
conducted his own Second Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto No. 2 (Bruch)
Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 44 was composed around 1878, and dedicated to the great Spanish violinist, Pablo de Sarasate. It was premiered in London by Sarasate, conducted by Bruch, in November 1878. The concerto has three movements:...
with Ladislas Gorski as soloist. In November 1893, a presentation was made to the Society's Secretary Francesco Berger in appreciation of ten years service. Soon afterwards, Queen's Hall opened its doors, and the Society moved there in the following February.
Subscription Concerts
Hans RichterHans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
often conducted Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
concerts at St. James's Hall, beginning in 1877. These 'Orchestral Festival Concerts' (established regularly in 1879 by the violinist Hermann Franke), which commenced after Easter, were among the chief rivals to the Philharmonic Society programmes. At the time of Arthur Sullivan's resignation of the Philharmonic conductorship, the Society suggested to Richter that he might become its conductor, and the two series of concerts might be amalgamated under the Society's supervision. Richter did not accept the plan.
In addition to Richter's series, there was also a nine-year winter series of subscription concerts established and conducted by George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
, including a full cycle of Beethoven symphonies in one year, and a rare performance of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Symphony. The content was planned against a 'permanent background' of Beethoven and Brahms. Helen Henschel refers to 'the famous Wagner cat' which inhabited the Hall. It was said to walk onto the stage during rehearsals whenever any work by Wagner was being played, but never otherwise.
Shaw refers to both, noting that Richter's concerts were too expensive, and that Henschel's orchestra was too small.
Readings by Charles Dickens
In 1868, famed VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
author Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
presented a final series of "Farewell Readings," at the hall, which commenced on the evening of October 6, with a program devoted to "Doctor Marigold" (from the Christmas Story) and "The Trial" from Pickwick. He had settled with his tour managers, Chappell & Co., on 100 readings for the princely sum of £8,000 pounds. Attendees would receive printed programs and Chappell's advertisements included the following statement:
It is scarcely necessary for Messrs. CHAPPELL and Co. to add that any announcement made in connexion with these FAREWELL READINGS will be strictly adhered to and considered final; and that on no consideration whatever will Mr. DICKENS be induced to appoint an extra night in any place in which he shall have been once announced to read for the last time.
The stalls were priced at five shillings, balcony seats at three, and general admission at one shilling. A new amenity, sofa stalls ("of which there will be a limited number only"), went for seven shillings.
The following year Dickens would have to cut a provincial tour short after collapsing showing symptoms of a mild stroke in Preston on April 22, 1869. When he had regained sufficient strength, he arranged, with medical approval, for a series of readings to partially make up to Chappell & Co. what they had lost due of his illness. There were to be twelve final performances, running starting on January 11, 1870 back at the hall. Dickens would give his last public reading here at 8:00 pm on the 15 March 1870. He died shortly thereafter on 9 June, having suffered another stroke.
Other uses
The Bach ChoirThe Bach Choir
The Bach Choir is a large chorus, based in London, England. It has around 220 active members. The choir's musical director is David Hill and previous musical directors have included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reginald Jacques and Sir David Willcocks.The Bach Choir is an...
, established in 1875 under a founding committee including Sir George Grove
George Grove
Sir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....
and Sir John Stainer
John Stainer
Sir John Stainer was an English composer and organist whose music, though not generally much performed today , was very popular during his lifetime...
, had as a primary aim the introduction to England of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Mass in B Minor. With a choir of between 200 and 250 voices, including the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
, and under the baton of her husband, conductor Otto Goldschmidt
Otto Goldschmidt
Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt was a German composer, conductor and pianist, known for his piano concertos and other piano pieces...
, the Mass came to performance in April 1876 at St James's Hall, and a second performance was given a month later.
Henry J. Wood performed the E minor organ concerto of Ebenezer Prout
Ebenezer Prout
Ebenezer Prout , was an English musical theorist, writer, teacher and composer, whose instruction, afterwards embodied in a series of standard works, underpinned the work of many British musicians of succeeding generations....
at the Hall with an orchestra under Joseph Barnby
Joseph Barnby
Sir Joseph Barnby , English musical composer and conductor, son of Thomas Barnby, an organist, was born at York. He was a chorister at York Minster from the age of seven, was educated at the Royal Academy of Music under Cipriani Potter and Charles Lucas, and was appointed in 1862 organist of St...
, in the late 1880s. Although the performance earned him much praise, he referred to the instrument as 'that terrible box of whistles at St. James's Hall'. This had not seemed to bother Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
when he premiered his third Symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)
The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic zenith of his career. It is also popularly known as the "Organ Symphony", even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out...
there (in which two sections make extensive use of the organ) in 1886. Saint-Saëns was a fine organist, and was titulaire of Église de la Madeleine
Église de la Madeleine
L'église de la Madeleine is a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. If he had any objections to the organ of St. James Hall for the premier of his symphony, they do not appear in his writings.
The Stock Exchange Orchestral Society, founded 1883, originally played in the Prince's Hall Piccadilly, but transferred to St. James's Hall until 1894, when they moved to Queen's Hall. In December 1893 Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene was an Irish baritone singer who was most famous in the formal concert and oratorio repertoire. He made a great contribution to British musical life also by writing and lecturing upon his art, and in the field of competitions and examinations...
and Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick was an English concert pianist especially associated with the music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.- Early training and debuts :...
began their celebrated partnership in lieder recitals at the hall, which continued well into the new century. In 1895, the 16-year-old pianist Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg was a distinguished Russian-British concert pianist, among the most famous of his age.- Life :Mark Hambourg was the eldest son of the pianist Michael Hambourg , and was brother of the cellist Boris Hambourg and the violinist Jan Hambourg , and of the musical organiser Clement...
gave a concert there under Henry J. Wood, in which he played three piano concerti.
The end of the Hall
The Chappell ballad concerts were being managed by William BooseyBoosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
in 1902, when the hall was owned by a private company. The controlling share was held by T. P. Chappell, chairman of Chappell's
Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
: he turned down a good offer to buy the hall because Boosey felt strongly about its old connection with the Saturday and Monday 'Pops' and the Chappell ballad concerts. But Chappell died in June 1902, and the other shareholders accepted a new offer without consulting Boosey, who was badly put out. Then Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
came into the market, and a friend of Boosey's acting in that interest pointed out that Queen's Hall would be worth much more if St James's Hall ceased to operate. Boosey realised that Messrs Chappell could benefit most by becoming lessors of Queen's Hall, and it was immediately arranged with the result that Chappell's controlled Queen's Hall from 1902 down to 1944. The 11-year-old violinist Franz von Vecsey
Franz von Vecsey
Franz von Vecsey was a Hungarian violinist and composer.He was born in Budapest and began his violin studies with his father, Lajos Vecsey, and at the age of eight he entered the studio of Jenő Hubay...
made his English debut at St James's Hall in April or early May 1904. It continued in use until February 1905 when it was demolished. The Piccadilly Hotel was afterwards built on the site.
1907 building
A new St. James's Hall at Great Portland StreetGreat Portland Street
Great Portland Street is a street in the West End of London. Linking Oxford Street with Albany Street and the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road, the road forms the boundary between Fitzrovia to the east and Marylebone to the west...
, (on a site previously occupied by St Paul's Church) had its foundation stone laid by the Lord Mayor and Sherriffs on 20 April 1907. It opened on 25 April 1908 with a series of promenade concerts performed by the newly formed St. James's Hall Orchestra under the musical directorship of Mr. Lyell Taylor.
External links
- Victorian London - St James's Hall (Victorian London)
- Images of the first hall (British History On-line)
- "The St. James's Hall Christy Minstrels' Illustrated 'Christmas Annual'" - 1868