Musical England (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1910. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI CONCERTS Private recitals--Royal Choral Society--London Choral Society --Mr. Mason's Choir--Queen's Hall and Alexandra Palace Choral Societies--August Manns -- Ganz--Richter--The Philharmonic Society--Queen's Hall Orchestra--London and New Symphony Orchestras--Mr. Beecham's Orchestra --Amateur societies--Chamber music--National Sunday League--Railway Societies--Provincial concerts--Birmingham--Eastbourne--Sheffield--Liverpool--Manchester. London Concerts.--Considered as performances to which the public pay _J for the right of entry, concerts are comparatively modern institutions, and date back in this country only to the closing years of the seventeenth century. Even so, it would be a work of great difficulty and little interest to review them all, and I shall confine myself almost entirely to those associations which are still in existence, and--in a work designedly concerned with modern music and its outlook--make little attempt to trace a line of gradual progress from one undertaking to another. Private recitals must necessarily be neglected; but the fact that they have doubled in quantity in the last ten years, and are quite ten times as numerous now as they were at the beginning of the last century, is exceedingly significant. Though very many of them exhibit a standard of artistic merit insufficient to justify their existence, there is a certain element of hopefulness in the fact that they are given at all. It points at least to a measure of activity in the schools, resulting in an annual output of artists, serious and ambitious if occasionally ill-equipped; and the amount of success they command is of less moment here than the degree of encouragement afforded by their mere existence. In dealing with the performance of larger bodies I shall cons...