Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Destroyed |
Type | Concert hall |
Architectural style | Victorian |
Location | Westminster, London |
Town or city | London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Opened | 25 November 1893 |
Destroyed | 10 May 1941 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Thomas Knightley |
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in
In the 1930s, the hall became the main London base of two new orchestras, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. These two ensembles raised the standards of orchestral playing in London to new heights, and the hall's resident orchestra, founded in 1893, was eclipsed and it disbanded in 1930. The new orchestras attracted another generation of musicians from Europe and the United States, including Serge Koussevitzky, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter and Felix Weingartner.
In 1941, during the
Background
The site on which the hall was built was bounded by the present-day
The new hall was to provide a much-needed music venue in the centre of London. St James's Hall, just south of Oxford Circus, was too small, had serious safety problems, and was so poorly ventilated as to be unpleasant.[4] Bernard Shaw in his capacity as a music critic commented on "the old unvaried round of Steinway Hall, Prince's Hall and St James's Hall", and warmly welcomed the new building.[5]
Construction
Ravenscroft commissioned the architect Thomas Edward Knightley to design the new hall.
The original decor consisted of grey and terracotta walls, Venetian red seating, large red lampshades suspended just above the orchestra's heads, mirrors surrounding the arena, and portraits of the leading composers to the sides of the platform.[8] The paintwork was intended to be the colour of "the belly of a London mouse", and Knightley is said to have kept a string of dead mice in the paint shop in order to ensure the correct tone.[8] The arena had moveable seating on a "brownish carpet that blended with the dull fawnish colour of the walls". The arched ceiling had an elaborate painting of the Paris Opéra, by Carpegat,[7] described by E. M. Forster, as "the attenuated Cupids who encircle the ceiling of the Queen's Hall, inclining each to each with vapid gesture, and clad in sallow pantaloons".[9]
In the centre of the arena there was a fountain containing pebbles, goldfish and waterlilies.[10] According to the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, "Every three or four minutes some fascinating young female fell into the fountain and had to be rescued by a chivalrous swain. It must have happened thirty-five times every night. Foreigners came from all parts of Europe to see it".[11] At the top of the building, adjoining the conservatory, was the Queen's Small Hall, seating 500, for recitals, chamber-music concerts and other small-scale presentations. In July 1894, Bernard Shaw described it as "cigar-shaped with windows in the ceiling, and reminiscent of a ship's saloon … now much the most comfortable of our small concert rooms".[5] The hall provided modern facilities, open frontage for carriages and parking room, a press room, public spaces and bars.[12]
At the time, and subsequently, the hall was celebrated for its superb acoustics, unmatched by any other large hall in London. Soon after its opening, Shaw praised it as "a happy success acoustically".[5][n 3] Knightley followed the example of earlier buildings noted for fine acoustics; the walls of the auditorium were lined with wood, fixed clear of the walls on thick battens, and coarse canvas was stretched over the wood and then sealed and decorated. He calculated that the unbroken surface and the wooden lining would be "like the body of the violin – resonant".[6] The Observer commented that the building resembled a violin in construction and shape, and also that "the ground plan of the orchestra was founded on the bell of a horn".[4]
Shortly before the opening, Ravenscroft appointed Robert Newman as manager. Newman had already had three different careers, as a stockjobber, a bass soloist,[n 4] and a concert agent.[14] The rest of his career was associated with the Queen's Hall,[15] and the names of the hall and the manager became synonymous.[4][16]
Early years
The Queen's Hall first opened its doors on 25 November 1893. Newman gave a children's party in the afternoon, and in the evening 2,000 invited guests attended what Elkin describes as "a sort of private view", with popular selections played by the Band of the Coldstream Guards, and songs, piano and organ solos performed by well-known musicians. After the performances, the seats in the arena were removed, lavish refreshments were served, and the guests danced.[17]
On 27 November there was a
The official opening of the hall took place on 2 December.
From the autumn of 1894, the hall was adopted as the venue for the annual winter season of concerts of the Philharmonic Society of London, which had formerly been held at St James's Hall. At the first Philharmonic concert at the Queen's Hall, Alexander Mackenzie conducted the first performance in England of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony, which was so well received that it was repeated, by popular acclaim, at the next concert. During the 1894–95 season, Edvard Grieg and Camille Saint-Saëns conducted performances of their works. The Society remained at the Queen's Hall until 1941.[22]
Promenade concerts
To fill the hall during the heat of the late-summer period, when London audiences tended to stay away from theatres and concert halls, Newman planned to run a ten-week season of
Newman's determination to make the promenade concerts attractive to everyone led him to permit smoking during concerts, which was not formally prohibited at the Proms until 1971.[27] Refreshments were available in all parts of the hall throughout the concerts, not only during intervals.[28] Prices were about one fifth of those customarily charged for classical concerts: the promenade (the standing area) was one shilling, the balcony two shillings, and the grand circle (reserved seats) three and five shillings.[29][n 6]
Newman needed to find financial backing for his first season. Dr George Cathcart, a wealthy
On 10 August 1895, the first of the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts took place. It opened with Wagner's overture to Rienzi, but the rest of the programme comprised, in the words of a historian of the Proms, David Cox, "for the most part ... blatant trivialities".[33] Newman and Wood gradually tilted the balance from light music to mainstream classical works;[34] within days of the opening concert, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and further excerpts from Wagner operas were performed.[35] Among the other symphonies presented during the first season were Schubert's Great C Major, Mendelssohn's Italian and Schumann's Fourth. The concertos included Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Schumann's Piano Concerto.[36] During the season there were 23 novelties, including the London premieres of pieces by Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Massenet and Rimsky-Korsakov.[37] Newman and Wood soon felt able to devote every Monday night of the season principally to Wagner and every Friday night to Beethoven, a pattern that endured for decades.[38]
Other presentations
Many events at the Queen's Hall were not presented by Newman. The hall was frequently let to organisations such as the
Newman continued to be interested in new entertainments. The music hall entertainer Albert Chevalier persuaded him to instigate variety performances in the Queen's Small Hall from 16 January 1899.[42] These shows were well received; The Times commented that Chevalier's "vogue with the cultured classes is as great and as permanent as with his former patrons".[43]
Despite all these various activities, in the public mind the Queen's Hall quickly became chiefly associated with the promenade concerts. Newman was careful to balance "the Proms", as they became known,[n 7] with more prestigious and expensive concerts throughout the rest of the year.[46] He would foster the careers of promising artists, and if they were successful at the Proms they would, after two seasons, be given contracts for the main concert series, billed as the Symphony Concerts.[46] The Proms had to be run on the tightest of budgets, but for the Symphony Concert series Newman was willing to pay large fees to attract the most famous musicians.[47] Soloists included Joseph Joachim, Fritz Kreisler, Nellie Melba, Pablo de Sarasate, Eugène Ysaÿe and, most expensive of all, Ignacy Jan Paderewski.[48] Conductors included Arthur Nikisch and Hans Richter.[49] Among the composers who performed their own works at the hall in its first 20 years were Debussy, Elgar, Grieg, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Schoenberg, Richard Strauss and Sullivan.[50]
Early 20th century
In 1901 Newman became the lessee of the hall as well as its manager, but the following year, after unwise investment in theatrical presentations, he was declared bankrupt. The music publisher Chappell and Co took over the lease of the building, retaining Newman as manager. The Queen's Hall orchestra and concerts were rescued by the musical benefactor Sir Edgar Speyer, a banker of German origin. Speyer put up the necessary funds, encouraged Newman and Wood to continue with their project of musical education, and underwrote the Proms and the main Symphony Concert seasons.[51] Newman remained manager of the hall until 1906 and manager of the concerts until he died in 1926.[17]
The standard of orchestral playing in London was adversely affected by the deputy system, in which orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert. The treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society described it thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away".[52] The members of the Queen's Hall Orchestra were not highly paid; Wood recalled in his memoirs, "the rank and file of the orchestra received only 45s a week for six Promenade concerts and three rehearsals, a guinea for one Symphony concert and rehearsal, and half-a-guinea for Sunday afternoon or evening concerts without rehearsal".[53][n 8] Offered ad hoc engagements at better pay by other managements, many of the players took full advantage of the deputy system. Newman determined to put an end to it. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with a sea of entirely unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came on the platform to announce: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies; good morning".[54] Forty players resigned en bloc and formed their own orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra.[55] Newman did not attempt to bar the new orchestra from the Queen's Hall, and its first concert was given there on 9 June 1904, conducted by Richter.[55]
By the 20th century the Queen's Hall was regarded not only as "London's premier concert-hall" but as "the acknowledged musical centre of the Empire".[56] The drabness of its interior decor and the lack of leg-room in the seating attracted criticism. In 1913, The Musical Times said, "In the placing of the seats apparently no account whatever is taken even of the average length of lower limbs, and it appeared to be the understanding … that legs were to be left in the cloak room. At twopence apiece this would be expensive, and there might be difficulties afterwards if the cloak room sorting arrangements were not perfect".[57] Chappells promised to rearrange the seats to give more room and did so within the year; the seating capacity of the hall was reduced to 2,400.[58] War intervened before the question of refurbishing the decor could be addressed.[58]
First World War and post-war
On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Newman, Wood and Speyer were obliged to consider the immediate future of concert-giving at the Queen's Hall. They discussed whether the Proms should continue as planned, and agreed to go ahead. However, within months anti-German feeling forced Speyer to leave the country and seek refuge in the U.S., and there was a campaign to ban all German music from concerts.[59] Newman put out a statement declaring that German music would be played as planned: "The greatest examples of Music and Art are world possessions and unassailable even by the prejudices and passions of the hour".[60]
When Speyer left Britain in 1915, Chappell's took on financial responsibility for the Queen's Hall concerts. The resident orchestra was renamed the New Queen's Hall Orchestra.[61] Concerts continued throughout the war years, with fewer major new works than before, although there were nevertheless British premieres of pieces by Bartók, Stravinsky and Debussy. An historian of the Proms, Ateş Orga, wrote: "Concerts often had to be re-timed to coincide with the 'All Clear' between air raids. Falling bombs, shrapnel, anti-aircraft fire and the droning of Zeppelins were ever threatening. But [Wood] kept things on the go and in the end had a very real part to play in boosting morale".[62] The hall was hit by German air raids, but escaped with only minor damage. A member of Wood's choir later recalled a hit in the middle of a concert:
[T]here was a crash, and then a cracking sound, and a shower of plaster began to fall from the roof of the Promenade, which was packed. There was a bit of a rush from the centre of the hall for a moment. One or two of the orchestra disappeared from their seats. Even Sir Henry Wood himself glanced rather anxiously up at the roof, though still wielding his baton. ... After the concert no one was allowed to leave the Hall. ... One of the orchestra nobly returned to the platform and struck up a waltz. We were soon dancing over the floor and really enjoying the experience. We were not released till about 1 a.m".[63]
After the war, the Queen's Hall operated for a few years much as it had done before 1914, except for what Wood called "a somewhat disagreeable blue-green" new decor.
In the middle of the impasse Newman's health failed, and he died in November 1926 after a brief illness. Wood wrote, "I feared everything would come to a standstill, for I had never so much as engaged an extra player without having discussed it with him first".[16] Newman's assistant, W. W. Thompson, took over as manager of the orchestra and the concerts, but at this crucial point Chappells withdrew financial support for the Proms. After lengthy negotiations, the BBC took over from Chappells in 1927 as sponsor.[68] The Proms were saved, and the hall continued to play host to celebrity concerts throughout the rest of the 1920s and the '30s, some promoted by the BBC, and others as hitherto by a range of choral societies, impresarios and orchestras.[69] As Chappells owned the title "New Queen's Hall Orchestra", the resident orchestra had to change its name once again and was now known as Sir Henry J. Wood's Symphony Orchestra.[61]
Last years
In 1927, the
Both orchestras made their debuts with concerts at the Queen's Hall. The BBC orchestra gave its first concert on 22 October 1930, conducted by Boult in a programme of music by
With orchestral standards now of unprecedented excellence, eminent musicians from Europe and the U.S. were eager to perform at the Queen's Hall.[77] Among the guest conductors at the hall in the 1930s were Serge Koussevitzky, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter and Felix Weingartner. Composer-conductors included Richard Strauss and Anton Webern.[78][79] Some recordings made in the hall during this period have been reissued on CD.[n 10]
Second World War
On the outbreak of the
On the afternoon of 10 May 1941, there was an Elgar concert at the hall. Sargent conducted the
It was reported in late 1946 that the Commissioners of Crown Lands had increased the site's ground rent from £850 to £8,000, setting back the possibility of re-building the hall, or of building a new Henry Wood Concert Hall.
The former site of the Queen's Hall was redeveloped by the freeholder, the
Everybody who heard concerts in that hall speaks, or spoke, warmly of its acoustics and atmosphere … by all accounts it was perfect. It should have been rebuilt after the war: there were plans, committees, even the start of a fundraising campaign. But it wasn't, and since then London has not had a symphonic concert hall that comes remotely close to perfection.[n 12]
The site is now marked by a commemorative plaque, which was unveiled in November 2000, by Sir Andrew Davis, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.[93]
Notes, references and sources
Notes
- ^ Thomas Edward Knightley (1824–1905) was District Surveyor for Hammersmith for more than 40 years. For Ravenscroft, he had previously designed Bank Chambers in Chancery Lane.[3]
- ^ Elkin gives a figure of 3,000, but this includes the platform seating for the performers.[6]
- ^ In a 1972 paper for the Royal Society, P.H. Parkin disputed the hall's reputation for superb sound: "Before the war the main halls were the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen's Hall, and the Wigmore Hall. The Queen's Hall is burnt down (incidentally its acoustics were not particularly good: there is nothing like getting burnt down as a way to get a good posthumous reputation for acoustics), but has been replaced by the Royal Festival Hall, which seats 50% more than the Queen's Hall did".[13]
- ^ In the first years of the hall, Newman twice stood in as bass soloist in emergencies and was well received.[4]
- ^ The other items in the miscellany of the second half were Handel's "Sweet Bird" (Albani), Cowen's "Absence" and "Parted Presence" (Hoare) and Gounod's Reine de Saba march.[21]
- ^ In decimal coinage, respectively 5, 10, 15 and 25 pence: the equivalent of approximately £4 to £20 in terms of 2009 retail prices.[30]
- Last Night of the Proms, which he called "the Last Prom of the Season".[45]
- ^ In decimal currency, 45s (45 shillings) would be £2.25; a guinea was £1.05.
- ^ From 1922 to 1927 the BBC was a company, after which it was reconstituted by Royal Charter as the British Broadcasting Corporation
- RCA Victor in the U.S, for example, Naxos CDs of Beethoven symphonies (OCLC 156089616) recorded in the Queen's Hall in 1937 and 1939. There are also recordings of Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's music recorded at the Queen's Hall, an off-air transcription of a 1936 Prom featuring Elisabeth Schumann, and a Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Albert Sammonsand Bernard Shore, Wood conducting (OCLC 34323364)
- ^ The Queen's Hall had contained few memorials. In 1922 a bust by Malvina Hoffman of the tenor Gervase Elwes was placed in a special alcove at the back of the grand circle. In 1935 a memorial tablet to the pianist Fanny Davies was unveiled near the Elwes bust. Another memorial tablet was placed in memory of Robert Newman. These were all destroyed in the bombing. The bust of Wood that survived the destruction of the hall was by Donald Gilbert, unveiled in 1938 by Sir Walford Davies as part of the celebration of Wood's fifty years as a conductor. Its site was at the back of the Promenade floor. It is now on display at the Royal Academy of Music, except during Proms seasons, when it occupies a central position overlooking the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.[87]
- ^ Morrison blames the cabinet minister Herbert Morrison for this; Herbert Morrison was determined that his pet project, the Royal Festival Hall, should take precedence. "The fact that the new Royal Festival Hall was in the wrong place, made of the wrong materials, and designed to the wrong shape, mattered not one whit".[91] Richard Morrison compares the perfection of the Queen's Hall to the imperfections of the Festival Hall ("disastrously dry acoustics"), the Albert Hall ("giant-bathroom reverberation") and the Barbican ("an acoustical calamity").[91]
References
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 14
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 13–15
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p. 15
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Queen's Hall", The Observer, 23 November 1913, p. 6
- ^ a b c Laurence, p. 295
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p. 16
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p. 18.
- ^ a b Elkin (1946), p. 89 and (1944), p. 18.
- ^ Forster, E. M. Howards End 1910, Chapter 5. Retrieved 7 August 2011
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 28
- ^ Ayre, p. 65
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 16–19
- ^ Parkin, P.H. "Acoustics of Concert and Multi-Purpose Halls", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 272, No. 1229 (27 July 1972), pp. 621–625 (subscription required)
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 24
- ^ Cox, p. 83
- ^ a b Wood, p. 319
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p. 21
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 99–100.
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 21–22.
- ^ "The Queen's Hall", The Times, 4 December 1893, p. 10
- ^ "Music", The Observer, 3 December 1893, p. 6
- ^ Elkin (1946), pp. 88–89 and 180.
- ^ Jacobs, p. 30
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 25–26
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 26
- ^ Orga, p. 44
- ^ Orga, p. 57
- ^ Jacobs, p. 46
- ^ Orga, p. 55
- ^ Williamson, Samuel H. "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1830 to Present", MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 4 August 2011
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p. 25
- ^ Jacobs, p. 34
- ^ Cox, p. 33
- ^ Wood, p. 98
- ^ Cox, p. 34
- ^ Jacobs, p. 45
- ^ Cox, p. 35; and Orga, p. 61
- ^ Cox, p. 35
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 52, 57, 62 and 64
- ^ Elkin (1944), pp. 119–125
- ^ Birt Acres biography, EarlyCinema.com. Retrieved 21 June 2007
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 23
- ^ "Mr. Chevalier's Recitals", The Times, 7 March 1899, p. 3
- ^ "Covent Garden Opera – Le Lac des Cygnes", The Observer, 28 July 1912, p. 7; "London Concerts", The Musical Times, December 1912 pp. 804–07; "The Promenade Concerts – Successful Opening of the Season", The Times, 12 August 1918, p. 9; and Newman, Ernest, "The Week in Music", The Manchester Guardian, 2 August 1923, p. 5
- ^ Wood, p. 192
- ^ a b Wood, p. 75
- ^ Wood, p. 108
- ^ Wood, pp. 184, 182, 100, 130, 171 and 108
- ^ Wood, pp. 160 and 63
- ^ Wood, pp. 228, 250, 198, 96, 159, 272, 163 and 142
- ^ Cox, pp. 42–43, and Elkin (1944), p. 29
- ^ Levien, John Mewburn, quoted in Reid, p. 50
- ^ Wood, p. 101
- ^ Morrison, p. 11
- ^ a b Morrison, p. 24
- ^ Elkin (1944), rear cover
- ^ "Occasional Notes", The Musical Times, Vol. 54, No. 847 (1 September 1913), pp. 584–586 (subscription required)
- ^ a b Elkin (1944), p.19
- ^ Cox, pp. 64–65
- ^ Cox, p. 65
- ^ a b c Elkin (1944), p. 33
- ^ Orga, p. 88
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 32
- ^ Wood, p. 308
- ^ Wood, pp.309, 311 and 317
- ^ Orga, pp. 92–93
- ^ Jacobs, pp. 208–209
- ^ Orga, pp. 93–94
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 126
- ^ Kennedy, p. 138
- ^ Reid, p. 204
- ^ "Wireless Notes and Programmes", The Manchester Guardian, 22 October 1930, p. 12
- ^ "B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra Opening Concert", The Times, 23 October 1930, p. 12
- ^ "London Concerts", The Musical Times, Vol. 71, No. 1054 (1 December 1930), pp. 1124–1127 (subscription required)
- ^ Russell, p. 18
- ^ Jefferson, p. 89
- ^ Jacobs, p. 242
- ^ "Music", The Times, 27 August 1931, p. 8; 10 September 1932, p. 8; and 11 August 1936, p. 10
- ^ Morrison, p. 74 and Boult, p. 102
- ^ Cox, p. 110
- ^ a b Morrison, pp. 89–90
- ^ Pound, pp. 241–268.
- ^ Cox, p. 116
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 128
- ^ "Royal Choral Society – An Elgar Programme", The Times, 12 May 1941, p. 8
- ^ Pound, pp. 271–273.
- ^ Elkin (1944), p. 20
- ^ Dannatt, George. Concerts in London. In: Penguin Music Magazine, I, edited by Ralph Hill. Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1946, p115.
- ^ "Rebuilding Queen's Hall", The Times, 20 October 1954, p. 10
- ^ "No New Queen's Hall – Plan Rejected by Committee", The Times, 28 May 1955, p. 4
- ^ a b c Morrison, p. 105
- ^ "Queen's Hall Site Tower Planned", The Times, 30 June 1959, p. 5
- ^ City of Westminster green plaques "Westminster City Council - Green Plaques Scheme". Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
Sources
- Ayre, Leslie (1966). The Wit of Music. London: Leslie Frewin. OCLC 557588486.
- Cox, David (1980). The Henry Wood Proms. London: BBC. ISBN 0-563-17697-0.
- Elkin, Robert (1944). Queen's Hall, 1893–1941. London: Rider. OCLC 636583612.
- Elkin, Robert (1946). Royal Philharmonic. London: Rider. OCLC 3141945.
- Jacobs, Arthur (1994). Henry J. Wood: Maker of the Proms. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-69340-6.
- Jefferson, Alan (1979). Sir Thomas Beecham – A Centenary Tribute. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 978-0-354-04205-5.
- Laurence, Dan H., ed. (1989). Shaw's Music – The Complete Music Criticism of Bernard Shaw, Volume 3. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-31272-4.
- Morrison, Richard (2004). Orchestra – The LSO. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-21584-X.
- Orga, Ateş (1974). The Proms. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6679-3.
- Pound, Reginald (1959). Sir Henry Wood. London: Cassell. OCLC 603264427.
- Reid, Charles (1961). Thomas Beecham – An Independent Biography. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC 500565141.
- Russell, Thomas (1945). Philharmonic Decade. London: Hutchinson. OCLC 504109856.
- Wood, Henry J. (1938). My Life of Music. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC 30533927.
External links
- NQHO history at the Robert Farnon Society
- NQHO and Queen's Hall history at New Queen's Hall Orchestra official website (archived)