Francesco Berger

He was a teacher of the piano and a professor at the Royal Academy of Music but is mostly remembered as the honorary secretary of the Philharmonic Society for 27 years.

Berger was born in London on 10 June 1834 of Italian parents but had British nationality as his father was a naturalized Briton.

He received much of his musical education in Germany where he was taught by Moscheles in a strictly classical tradition, a style of play from which Chopin was later to be the first to break free.

[4] He was commissioned to write music for two plays by Wilkie Collins which were produced by Dickens and performed at his private theatrical parties.

Near the end of his tenure, the great violinist Kreisler took part in the first performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor which had been commissioned by the Society.