The music's the thing
Louise Flind on the Wigmore Hall as it celebrates its centenary
The Wigmore Hall is 100 years old. This is no mean feat considering its babyhood, adolescence, rocky twenties and adult life were within the technically fastmoving times of the 20th century, surviving into the present century and our supposed three-minute attention span. But like all great institutions with admirable longevity its fundamental aim has remained constant: to be a place for providing good music for discriminating audiences. As one concert-goer confirmed, 'If Heaven is not like the Wigmore Hall I'm not going there.' And when I asked John Tusa, the present chairman of the board of trustees, why he thought the concert hall had survived, he replied, 'Quality, quality, quality.'
This was certainly true at the outset. Initially called the Bechstein Hall, it was attached to Bechstein's showrooms and suite of studios. Pianos at the turn of the last century were still highly popular with the chattering classes who enjoyed music evenings in their drawing-rooms as well as in concert halls. The step from showroom to hall was therefore inevitable and the standard was quality — quality not just of performance but of ambience which was, as stated at the time, 'identical with that favoured by the great London hospitals', allowing audiences to 'listen to the divinest harmonies in a state of perfect immunity of all unhygienic elements'. It was therefore the most commodious and, from an acoustic standpoint, the most perfect concert hall in London'.
The inaugural performance on 31 May 1901 matched these surroundings. Helen Trust, renowned singer of ballads, opened with the National Anthem and three fashionable pieces, followed by the pianist Busoni who played Beethoven's Sonata Op. 109. Busoni and the esteemed violinist Ysaye performed Bach's F minor Violin Sonata and the tenor Raymond von ZurMahlen (who had studied with Clara Schumann) sang three Schubert songs. Bach and the Beethoven Romance in G completed the violinist's programme and Busoni finished with the Brahms Paganini Variations. Indeed a quality programme.
In the Wigmore's first decade music and entertainment enjoyed a crescendo. New theatres and concert halls were popping up — the Coliseum and the Palladium and the Queen's Hall and the Albert Hall, the latter initiating the summer Proms. Competition was inevitable but the Bechstein Hall was open at a modest hiring fee to anyone who could afford it. It therefore mirrored contemporary times and tastes.
During the first world war, the editor of Pianomaker, a downmarket trade magazine, started a campaign saying that the
Bechstein Hall was German and run by Germans and should be closed. This was totally unfounded but the case went to court and the fiery editor's wish was granted: the Bechstein was closed. Bechstein's bust vanished without trace and in November 1916 everything was auctioned off — the hall, studios, offices and furniture, including 137 fine pianos. Bidding was offered to 'anyone not under foreign influence'. A local shop, Debenham and Freebody, bought the lot for £56,500, a bargain considering the hall itself had cost £100,000 to build. Possibly in a move to confirm its patriotism, the hall reopened in 1917 as the Wigmore Hall. German ivories were still banned, much to the frustration of great pianists such as Abbe Liszt, and Lieder were sung in English and French.
Having had a rather mediocre patch during the Twenties (despite a visit from the likes of Janacek, little noticed due to the General Strike in 1926), the hall picked up again in the Thirties. This was largely due to a London-based record industry with an interest in 'serious' music and Reith's BBC, which was armed with public funding earmarked for the nation's enlightenment. The advent of the second world war inevitably brought about less music but raw talent abounded. In 1943 Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra and a serenade by Benjamin Britten for tenor and horn were premiered, both of which were critically acclaimed. Even The Spectator grumpily acknowledged that the latter had 'enormous cleverness'.
After the war, the newly formed Arts Council stepped in and managed the hall financially if not with much artistic enthusiasm. The hall was still under a hiring policy and despite various impressive visitors — such as the Amadeus Quartet, Wilhelm Kempff and Jacqueline du Pre — it became labelled as a debut hall with varying degrees of distinction.
William Lyne, a modest, mild-mannered but utterly committed individual, became director of the Wigmore Hall in 1966 and ingeniously put this little jewel back on the map. With both encouragement and occasional curtailment from the Arts Council, Lyne changed the hiring policy and begun to devise Wigmore programmes. So instead of artists booking it, the Wigmore would book them, which in time has led to far greater artistic freedom, winning the affection of a host of artists and their audiences. Now an independent trust and a registered charity, the Wigmore still receives a grant from the Arts Council, the remainder of its income coming from the Friends, various trusts and foundations with the balance from ticket sales.
When William Lyne first became director he remembers, 'There was one lady who'd been giving recitals since 1903 — she was quite a good musician, a pianist called Gertrude Peppercorn, a wonderful name.' Since 1966 Lyne has assembled a faithful and impressive troop of regular artists including Andras Schiff, whom Lyne spotted when he came third in the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1975. Third, Schiff declared, because 'I played Bach on the piano [Bach on the piano being strangely taboo at the time], but I do not care, I only care about my Bach'. Lyne had recognised a great talent in Schiff who put the music first.
Today, the hall is sometimes criticised, perhaps unfairly, for its unadventurous programming. Natalie Wheen, a regular broadcaster of the Wigmore's BBC Radio Three Rush Hour concerts, remembers an occasion which electrified her: 'There was a percussion pair from Denmark called the Safri Duo whose instruments were huge marimbas,' she recalls. 'It was the first time in all the years that I have been going to the Wiggers that I saw a large number of young people in the audience and a large number of faces which weren't white. I remember thinking that it's the Wigmore's programming policy that keeps the wider audience away.'
Naturally there is a distinction between contemporary classical and monolithical classical music which ensures a different audience. The Wigmore, like many classical organisations, is endeavouring to bridge this with the introduction of its education programme, a rumoured online deal and plans for an annual contemporary music week.
Since 1975 Andras Schiff has become an integral part of the Wigmore and its programme-making, and devised the first Centenary Gala Concert last Thursday (31 May). Graham Johnson designed the second centenary gala on 1 June with a superb line-up of singers: Barbara Bonney, Andreas Scholl, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Matthias Goerne.
Because of the Wigrnore's reputation, tradition and stratospheric artistic standards it's hardly surprising that it maintains a steadfast grip on our cultural landscape. A quartet player who had his initial break at the Wigmore pronounced, 'If you do a concert there and pull it off it keeps you alive for two weeks.' Let's hope the frequent triumphs preserve this little miracle for the next 100 years.
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