The purpose was to give a miscellaneous musical entertainment at a cheap price of admission, similar to that paid at the Popular Concerts.
The first series, consisting of fifteen concerts, began on 22 November 1848, and were continued once a week until 28 February 1849.
The third and fourth series showed some slight improvement in the programmes; the orchestra was increased to forty, Karl Anschütz was conductor, and symphonies of Mozart and Haydn were occasionally given in their entirety.
In spite of the fine artists engaged, these concerts failed to hit the popular taste.
[1] Among the artists who appeared were the vocalists Charlotte Birch, Charlotte Dolby, Elizabeth Poole, M. and A. Williams, Elena D'Angri, Jetty Treffz, Elizabeth Rainforth, Mr and Mrs Sims Reeves, John Braham, Giorgio Ronconi, Johann Baptist Pischek and Karl Formes; instrumentalists Kate Loder, Sigismond Thalberg, Prosper Sainton, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Eugène Léon Vivier, Antoine Joseph Lavigne, and Distin and sons; and for the recitation of Antigone, John Vandenhoff, Charlotte Vandenhoff and George Bennett.