Facilities for hearing music—Opera an exception—Sir Henry Wood—Dream of Gerontius—Sir Frederick Bridge—Ballad concerts—Ballad singers—Madame Clara Butt and Mr. Kennerly Rumford—Chamber music—Mr. Arthur Chappell and the Monday Popular Concerts—Salome—Question of the censor—Recognition of merit in distinguished musicians—Examination craze—Government enquiry suggested—Musical criticism—Disadvantages of anonymity—The great Festivals—Costa and the Handel Festival—Brass Band Contests and the North of England—Music halls of the past—Theatre of Varieties to-day—English composers—A suggestion—Closing words.
England, to-day, is second to no country in the world as regards facilities for hearing good music, under conditions that are both favourable and tending to attract even the least ardent devotees.
The exception must, however, be candidly made of opera, which, at present under ideal circumstances is offered at Covent Garden theatre, it is true, but at a price that is quite beyond the means of the average individual, and then only during a few months that constitute the London "Season."
It would be premature to write of the experiment now being made by Mr. Hammerstein, interesting as it is, but it is one that calls for sympathy, and the willing aid of all lovers of opera.
It is certain that the opportunities of hearing
orchestral music now presented to Londoners, are on a scale that would have made their forefathers pale with amazement.
To Sir Henry Wood this is largely due.
His achievements, to which allusion is made in another chapter, not only opened the eyes of those gifted with a true sense of the trend of events, but furnished the occasion that permitted of the indication, on the part of the dwellers in the metropolis, to seize with eagerness on the boon offered to them, not only under conditions that were artistic in the best sense of the word, but at a cost that need not affright those least blessed with worldly endowment.
This applies, of course, more particularly to the Promenade concerts, which are given nightly at the Queen's Hall in London, for two months or more during the late summer and autumn, and conducted by Sir Henry Wood.
The London Symphony Orchestra, the New Symphony Orchestra, and last, but by no means least, that venerable society, the Philharmonic, give concerts, both winter and summer; those of the last-named being confined to London, while the two former place their services at the disposition of the country at large.