Eng. city, capital of Great Britain. One of main musical centres of the world, with rich and varied activities in all branches of the art. From 18th cent. has enjoyed visits from leading performers and composers. Among the latter, Handel, J. C. Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Weber, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss, Hindemith, Ligeti, Berio, and Stockhausen are prominent. This summary of London music will be divided into sections, for ease of reference.
- opera.
- The first real operatic perf. in London was at Rutland House, 1656, when Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes (mus. by 5 composers) was given. Purcell's Dido and Aeneas was perf. at a Chelsea school in 1689. Drury Lane Th. was used for opera in the 1690s. Handel's first operatic perfs. in London after 1711 were mainly at the King's Th., Haymarket. Rival perfs. were given at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden. From the 1830s the Lyceum and Drury Lane staged important opera seasons. The King's (re‐named Her Majesty's in 1837) was the home of It. opera, but the first London Ring cycle was given there in 1882. After being rebuilt smaller in 1897, Her Majesty's was used less frequently for opera, although Beecham cond. Strauss's Feuersnot there in 1910 and the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos in 1913. The BNOC gave seasons there after 1924. The first th. on the Covent Garden site opened in 1732. Several Handel operas and oratorios were perf. there. The th. was rebuilt in 1782 and enlarged in 1792. It burned down in 1808 and was re‐opened in 1809, Bishop being dir. 1810–24. Weber's Oberon had its f.p. there in 1826. Fire destroyed this building in 1856, the present th. opening in 1858. Mainly It. operas were perf., but the first Ring cycle, cond. by Mahler, was given in 1892. From 1896 to 1924, CG was run by a syndicate. In 1908 and 1909, Richter cond. the Ring in English. Between 1910 and 1914 Beecham introduced Elektra, Salome, and Der Rosenkavalier to London and held the lease of the th. 1919–20. Many famous singers and conductors appeared there up to 1939. During the Second World War, CG was a dance hall, but re‐opened in 1946 with Purcell's The Fairy Queen and David Webster as admin. of the CG Opera Company. This became the Royal Opera in 1969. From 1931 London's second opera house was
Sadler's Wells in Rosebery Avenue which housed the Vic‐Wells Opera (SW Opera from 1934) until 1939 and from 1945 to 1968 (it re‐opened on 7 June 1945 with f.p. of Peter Grimes). The company moved to the Coliseum in 1968 and changed its name in 1974 to English National Opera. Smaller companies and visiting companies continue to use Sadler's Wells. The forerunner of Sadler's Wells was the Old Vic where Lilian Baylis had first staged opera in 1900. Until 1935 Vic‐Wells Opera and Vic‐Wells Ballet used both the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells.
- orchestras.
- Public concerts in London date from 1672. Thomas Britton's weekly gathering at Clerkenwell lasted from 1678 to 1714. Subscription concerts were held at Hickford's Rooms, James Street, from 1729 to c.1752. Geminiani ran rival concerts from 1731 to 1738. The J. C. Bach–C. F. Abel concerts began in 1765 at Carlisle House, Soho Square, and moved to Hanover Square Rooms in 1775. They ceased in 1782. Concerts organized by Cramer, Clementi, and Salomon ran from 1783 to 1793, but Salomon left to launch his own series in 1783 (it was to this series that Haydn came). In the 19th cent. concerts were given first in the Argyll Rooms, at the corner of Oxford and Argyll Streets, and it was there that the
Philharmonic Society gave its first concert on 8 March 1813. The building was demolished in 1818 and the New Argyll Rooms opened in 1820 (they burned down in 1830). The Philharmonic moved to the King's Th. in 1830, to Hanover Square Rooms 1833–68, St James's Hall 1869–93, Queen's Hall 1894–1941, Royal Albert Hall 1941–51, Festival Hall from 1951. Important orch. concerts were given at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, cond. by August Manns 1855–1901, where the members of the orch. played continually together and were London's first permanent orch. The opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871 added a hall with a capacity of 6,500 to London's musical life. It was used mainly for large‐scale events until 1941 when the destruction of Queen's Hall meant that nearly all symphony concerts were given there. It has remained the home since 1941 of the Promenade Concerts, founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and Henry J. Wood. The Queen's Hall, Langham Place, had opened in 1893 and was renowned for its acoustics. It replaced the St James's Hall, Piccadilly, built in 1858. The Richter concerts were given there from 1877 and, even though the Queen's Hall by then existed, Elgar's Enigma Variations had their f.p. at a Richter concert in St James's Hall in 1899. It was demolished in 1905. London's principal concert hall since 1951 has been the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, with the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room as smaller adjuncts since 1967 but not entirely replacing for recitals the usefulness since 1901 of the Wigmore Hall (Bechstein Hall until 1917) in Wigmore Street. The latest additions are the Barbican Concert Hall and the Cadogan Hall. No other city in the world supports as many orchestras as London. The BBC SO (founded 1930) and the orchestras of the Royal Opera House and ENO are independent bodies and do not, as they once would have done, share players with others. The four principal symphony orchs. are London Symphony (founded 1904), London Philharmonic (founded 1932),Philharmonia (founded 1945), and Royal Philharmonic (founded 1946). In addition there are the English Chamber Orchestra (founded 1948, renamed 1960), Academy of St Martin‐in‐the‐Fields (founded 1958), London Mozart Players (founded 1949), London Sinfonietta (founded 1968), and Orchestra of St John's, Smith Square (founded 1973). Among the choirs are the Bach Choir (founded 1876), Royal Choral Society (founded 1871), John Alldis Choir (founded 1962), London Choral Society (founded 1903), Monteverdi Choir (founded 1964), London Philharmonic Choir (founded 1947), London Symphony Chorus (founded 1966), and Philharmonia Chorus (founded 1957).
- colleges.
- The Royal Academy of Music was founded in 1822, the Royal College of Music in 1882, Trinity College of Music in 1872, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1880, and the London College of Music in 1887. In addition the Univ. of London has a thriving musical wing.
- miscellaneous.
- In festivals, libraries, publishing firms, and not least the churches, from Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, the Temple Church, and much besides, London's music is blessed by abundance. The capital is fortunate in having and holding so much; the only cavil is that some Londoners sometimes assume that nowhere else (in Britain) has anything.
