Concert Listings of Yesteryear

[parkepr]

Just came accross this website... https://concertannals.blogspot.com/

Could happily spend ages dipping through this and geting nostagic!

[smittims]

Many thanks. I too shall enjoy exploring that. I did once find the LSO concerts almost complete; fascinating to see what Elgar conducted during his short period as principal conductor. And I think the complete Proms are somewhere.

[Opinionated Knowall]

The Proms archive is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...rmance-archive

[gurnemanz]

I was recently checking up on a Gewandhaus concert I had attended in the 1970s and came across their concert archive, which turns out to be a real treasure trove. Founded in 1743, the Gewandhaus Orchestra is certainly one of the oldest still in existence and the searchable programme archive goes back to November 1781. https://www.gewandhausorchester.de/archiv/

This is the first entry in the archive:

SO

25. NOV 1781

17:00 UHR
KONZERTSAAL IM GEWANDHAUS 1781-1884

Concert
Gewandhausorchester, [s. n.] Dirigent, Carl Gottlieb Berger Violine, Thekla Podleská Sopran

Joseph Schmitt — Sinfonie
Johann Friedrich Reichardt — Hymne "An die Musik"
[s. n.] — Konzert für Violine und Orchester
Carl Stamitz — Quartett (mit Orchester)
Pause
Johann Christian Bach — Sinfonie
Antonio Sacchini — Sò che un dolor tiranno – Arie aus der Oper "Il Cid"
Ernst Wilhelm Wolf — Sinfonie

And the last one before the end of the Second World War:

DO

01. FEB 1945

19:30 UHR
FILMTHEATER CAPITOL

Elftes Gewandhaus-Konzert
Gewandhausorchester, Hermann Abendroth Dirigent, Walther Davisson Violine

Richard Strauss — Tod und Verklärung – Tondichtung für großes Orchester op. 24
Hermann Goetz — Konzert für Violine und Orchester G-Dur op. 22
Ludwig van Beethoven — 5. Sinfonie c-Moll op. 67

[HighlandDougie]

Many thanks for the link - an agreeable distraction from more pressing (if tedious) matters. What struck me looking at the Hallé's 1930s programmes was the volume of music included in each concert. Not sure if today's audiences could cope for two hours deprived (one hopes) from obsessively consulting their iPhones but it must have been wonderful to have been in the FTH.

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks. I too shall enjoy exploring that. I did once find the LSO concerts almost complete; fascinating to see what Elgar conducted during his short period as principal conductor. And I think the complete Proms are somewhere.

I’ve often thought it would have been wonderful if Elgar had recorded music other than his own! Imagine hearing how he would have interpreted a Beethoven symphony?!

[smittims]

Yes, I think the two best candidates would have been the Mozart G minor K550 and Brahms' Third. But I think Fred Gaisberg kept a firm hand on what Elgar did and didn't record. He had to keep an eye on costs and profits, and many of Elgar's records were borderline cases economically.

Apart from the National Anthem,there is, I think, just one recording of Elgar conducting music other than his own: William Croft's hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past, in an astonishing 'accidental stereo' recording from 1928 in Queen's Hall. Using Elgar's orchestration, I think it was a 'B' side fro 'God save the King '.

Many thanks, O K, for the Proms link. That was another series of concerts famous for long programmes, and I think they didn't start till 8 pm.