Birmingham Triennial Music Festival

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Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, Town Hall 1845

The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in

classical music festival
of its kind. It last took place in 1912.

History

The Theatre Royal Birmingham in 1780
Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, Town Hall 1834

The first music festival, over three days in September 1768, was to help raise funds to complete the new General Hospital on Summer Lane. It proved to be very popular and successful, but it took another event in 1778 to achieve the funds required. The hospital opened September 1779.

From September 1784 the performances became a permanent feature and ran every three years, becoming the Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, still with the aim of raising funds for the hospital.

Originally hosted in St Philip's Church (later to become the city's cathedral) or the Theatre Royal on New Street the available venues became too small for the festival. As a result, the Birmingham Town Hall was built,[1] and opened in 1834 to house it. The festival for 1832 was delayed by two years during its erection.

Vocal works were generally sung in English. Hans Richter was appointed principal conductor in 1885.

Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn's 1840 sketch, showing scenes from Birmingham, including the Town Hall (top centre), and Dover

In 1837 Felix Mendelssohn conducted a performance of his St. Paul oratorio, played the organ, and played the piano part in the premiere of his second Piano Concerto, specially commissioned by the Festival. He appeared in the following festival, playing his first Piano Concerto. During that visit, he made a pen and ink sketch of the Town Hall.[2]

For the 1846 festival he composed and conducted the premiere of his oratorio

guineas
. Elijah was played at every successive festival. Mendelssohn died a year later.

The Birmingham Festival Choral Society (still extant, in 2021) was founded in 1845, for the purpose of providing the chorus for the festivals, and sang at the premiere of Elijah.[3]

Commissions

Sullivan’s The Light of the World, premiere 1873

In 1873 the Festival commissioned Arthur Sullivan who composed his oratorio The Light of the World.

The 1879 Festival commissioned a work from Max Bruch, Das Lied von der Glocke.

In 1882 Charles Gounod was commissioned and produced Redemption, which was performed twice.

In 1885

Mors et Vita
.

In 1891 Dvořák's commission delivered his Requiem for £650.

1900 saw the commission

Henry Wood
.

The end

The 1909 and 1912 festivals ran at a loss, providing no donation to the General Hospital. World War I marked the end of the Triennial Festivals.

See also

Sources

References

  1. ISBN 0-7734-3851-3
  2. ^ Gibbons, Brett (3 June 2011). "Mendelssohn's view of Birmingham strikes a chord". Business Live. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Birmingham Festival Choral Society: Birmingham Triennial Festival". Retrieved 5 March 2021.
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