This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Public chamber-music concerts in London, 1825-50 : aspects of history, repertory and reception. Bashford, Christina Margaret The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 08. Oct. 2021 Public Chamber-Music Concerts in London, 1835-50: Aspects of History, Repertory and Reception Christina Margaret Bashford Volume One Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of London King's College 1996 ABSTRACT Following their successful introduction to London in 1835, concerts of instrumental chamber music rapidly took root and by 1850 had become an established part of the London concert scene. In the course of these 15 seasons many chamber works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and others were brought before a group of concertgoers who were eager to sample their intellectual riches. Although chamber-music concerts were a new phenomenon for London concertgoers, and much of the chamber repertory had never been played in England, string quartets, quintets and other genres had been included in mixed orchestral concerts since the late 18th century, and from 1813 had featured prominently in the programmes of the Philharmonic Society's concerts. Based on a thorough examination of concert reports in early 19th-century newspapers and journals, extant concert programmes and hitherto unconsulted archival materials, this thesis first examines the vogue for chamber music in early 19th-century London. It then documents and assesses the development of chamber-music concerts in the 15 seasons from 1835 to 1850, thereby establishing a social and musical context for the best-known chamber-music societies of the period, the Musical Union and the Beethoven Quartet Society (both founded 1845). The study also analyses the evolution of the chamber-music repertory during the period and evaluates the emerging canonicity of the chamber music of Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart. It concludes with a detailed 2 discussion of the reception of Beethoven's 'late' string quartets, which were given their first English performances during the late 1830s. The thesis is in two volumes: the first presents the discussion and the bibliography; the second (appendices) provides detailed tables of repertory, an almanac of concerts, and transcriptions of the newspaper reviews of the London premieres of Beethoven's 'late' quartets. 3 CONTENTS VOLUME ONE List of figures 7 List of examples 8 List of tables 9 Editorial note 11 List of abbreviations 13 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 17 PART 1: A CONTEXT FOR CHAMBER-MUSIC CONCERTS BEFORE 1835 Chapter 1: London as a Centre for Concerts 27 1. Demography, topography 27 2. The growth of concert-giving 30 (i) Survey 30 (ii) Audiences 33 (iii) Performers 38 3. Other aspects of musical life 41 Chapter II: Chamber Music in Private 45 1. Sources, definitions 46 2. The late 18th century 48 3. 1800-35 54 (i) The perceived decline in chamber-music-making 55 (ii) The domestic repertory 61 (iii) Standards of music-making among amateurs 70 (iv) Domestic music and the professional musician 73 (v) Summary 82 4 Chapter III: Chamber Music in the Public Orchestral Concert 84 1. Patterns of performance, lT7O-l835 85 2. Chamber music at the Philharmonic, 1813-35 93 3. Chamber music in other concerts in the early 19th century 101 4. Summary 105 PART 2: INTO THE CONCERT ROOM, 1835-50 Chapter IV: First Experiments, 1835-45 109 1. 1835: Horn Tavern; the Concerti da Camera 109 2. The 'Classical Chamber' and 'Quartett' concerts, 1836-42 114 3. Other chamber-music concerts, 1836-42 129 4. Gathering momentum, 1842-5 136 Chapter V: Full Steam Ahead, 1845-50 151 1. John Ella and the Musical Union 152 2. Thomas Alsager and the Beethoven Quartet Society 180 3. Other developments from 1845 197 PART 3: REPERTORY AND RECEPTION Chapter VI: Establishing the Repertory 216 1. Programmes and programming 217 2. The instrumental repertory 228 (i) Documentation 228 (ii) Overview 229 (iii) Composers and works 241 3. The vocal repertory 256 4. Towards a chamber-music canon 264 Chapter VII: 'Late Beethoven' in London: a Case-Study in Musical Reception 273 1. Musical reception: definitions, problems, methodologies 274 (i) Origins of reception theory 274 (ii) Applications of reception theory to music 277 (iii) Measuring the reception of chamber music in London, 1835-50 283 2. The reception of Beethoven's 'late' quartets in the early 19th century: overview 288 (1) Performance history 288 5 (ii) Reception studies 291 3. The first English performances of Beethoven's 'late' quartets 294 (I) Beethoven in historical context 294 (ii) Contemporary journalism 296 (iii) Individuals' personal responses 329 (iv) Number of performances 333 (v) Miscellaneous evidence 334 4. Postscript: the 'late' quartets in London after 1840 336 Conclusion 342 Select Bibliography 351 VOLUME TWO Appendix A: Chamber Music Performed in Philharmonic Society Concerts, 1813-35 4 Appendix B: Instrumental Music Performed in Chamber Concerts, 1835-50, arranged by Concert Series 17 Appendix C: Instrumental Music Performed in Chamber Concerts, 1835-50, arranged by Composer and Work 122 Appendix D: Vocal Music Performed in Chamber Concerts, 1835-50, arranged by Concert Series 232 Appendix E: Vocal Music Performed in Chamber Concerts, 1835-50, arranged by Composer and Work 311 Appendix F: Almanac of Chamber Concerts 401 Appendix G: Newspaper reports of Performances of Beethoven's 'Late' Quartets, 1836-40 538 6 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 The 1845 Prospectus of the Musical Union (Ella Collection, MS 81, item 18/19; 85% of original size) 154 Fig.2 A ticket for John Ella's benefit concert, which took place at the Musical Union on 8 July 1845 (Ella Collection, MS 81, item 19b; 200% of original size) 167 Fig.3 'Quartet party at the Musical Union' (Illustrated London News, viii, no.2 17, 27 June 1846, 420; 90% of original size) 170 Fig.4 The first page of Henry Hill's programme for the third concert of the Beethoven Quartet Society's 1845 season (90% of original size) 185 Fig.5 John Ella's subscriber's ticket for the Beethoven Quartet Society's meetings for 1846 (Ella Collection, MS 80, item 39; 75% of original size) 196 7 LIST OF EXAMPLES Ex.1 Programme for the Classical Chamber Concert, 13 Feb 1837 (Morning Post, 14 Feb 1837) 219 Ex.2 Programme for Moscheles's Soirée, 4 March 1837 (Musical World, iv, no.52, 10 March 1837, 184) 221 Ex.3 Programme for the Musical Union, 16 June 1846 (Record of the Musical Union, 1846, no.6) 223 Ex.4 Programme for the Society of British Musicians, 16 Feb 1850 (Musical World, xxv, no.8, 23 Feb 1850, 115) 224 8 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Items of Instrumental Music in English Music Publishers' Catalogues, 1803-28 65 Table 2 References to Quartet Playing in John Ella's Diaries 78 Table 3 John Ella's Chamber-music Colleagues, 1823-6 79 Table 4 Number of Quartets Performed in London Concerts, 1786-95 87 Table 5 Number of Quartets Performed in London Concerts, 176 1-1835 91 Table 6 List of Composers whose Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by the number of performances within each 5-season period 230 Table 7 List of Composers whose Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by percentage share of the repertory within each 5-season period 232 Table 8 Alphabetical List of the Principal Composers whose Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by the number of performances within each 5-season period 235 Table 9 Alphabetical List of the Principal Composers whose Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by percentage share of the repertory within each 5-season period 236 Table 10 Alphabetical List of Composers whose Chamber Music was Performed at the Philharmonic, 1813-35 239 Table 11 The Most Frequently Performed Works in Period A (1835-40) 243 Table 12 The Most Frequently Performed Works in Period B (1840-45) 243 9 Table 13 The Most Frequently Performed Works in Period C (1845-50) 244 Table 14 The Most Frequently Performed Chamber Works, 1835-50 255 Table 15 List of Composers whose Vocal Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by the number of performances within each 5-season period 258 Table 16 List of Composers whose Vocal Music was Performed at Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50, ranked by percentage share of the vocal repertory within each 5-season period 260 Table 17 The Most Frequently Performed Vocal Numbers in Chamber-music Concerts, 1835-50 263 Table 18 Performances of Beethoven's 'Late' Quartets in London, 1836-40 288 Table 19 Newspapers and Periodicals containing Concert Reports of Performances of Beethoven's 'Late' Quartets 297 10 EDITORIAL NOTE The following editorial principles are followed in this thesis: (i) General editorial and bibliographic style (including forms of proper names) is based closely on that of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed.