St James's Hall

[5] 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.

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.

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.

'[15] 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.

[18] George Bernard Shaw reported that the concerts at the hall contributed greatly to the spread and enlightenment of musical taste in England.

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 (Erlkönig, To Anthea), Marguerite Hall (Schubert, Brahms, Henschel), singers.

[27] 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 bust of Beethoven by Johann Nepomuk Schaller was presented to the Society and collected (in Pest, Hungary) by Sir William Cusins.

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.

Other Philharmonic Society highlights of the next few years included performances by George Henschel, Xaver Scharwenka, Émile Sauret, Joseph Joachim and Edward Dannreuther.

Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted the concerts of 1885–87, 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.

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.

Cowen gave many concerts of contemporary English composers such as Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Alexander Mackenzie, Charles Villiers Stanford, and of his own works.

[36] These 'Orchestral Festival Concerts' (established regularly in 1879 by the violinist Hermann Franke[37]), which commenced after Easter, were among the chief rivals to the Philharmonic Society programmes.

[40] In 1868, famed Victorian 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.

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.

The following year Dickens would have to cut a provincial tour short after collapsing showing symptoms of a mild stroke in Preston on 22 April 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 to his illness.

Wood performed the E minor organ concerto of Ebenezer Prout at the Hall with an orchestra under Joseph Barnby, in the late 1880s.

[44] 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.

[45] The 11-year-old violinist Franz von Vecsey made his English debut at St James's Hall in April or early May 1904.

[47] A new St. James's Hall at Great Portland Street, (on a site previously occupied by St Paul's Church[47]) had its foundation stone laid by the Lord Mayor and Sherriffs on 20 April 1907.

[48] 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.