in Royal Festival Hall - the 1950's

from Southbank Centre Archive:

a) Hearing Tocanini conduct his last concert in Britain - the Brahms 3rd and 4th Symphonies.  B)  Sir Thomas Beecham's first concert at the Festival Hall playing Sibelius's second symphony.  He had been rather sniffy about the hall but this did not stop him giving a brilliant performance.  Thirty odd years later I was driving on the motorway and turned the radio on to find they were playing Sibelius's second.  After about 5 minutes I came to the conclusion it was Beecham's Festival Hal performance I had attended.  It was.

cite as

Southbank Centre (ed.), Southbank Centre Archive. In Southbank Centre Archive. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1447692313515 accessed: 28 March, 2024 (Southbank Centre Archive, http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about-us/history-and-archive/southbank-centre-archive)

location of experience: Royal Festival Hall

Listening to

hide composers
Symphony no. 2
written by Jean Sibelius, Sergei Prokofiev
performed by Sir Thomas Beecham
Brahms Symphonies performed by Toscanini

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1950's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by Liz Ford on Mon, 16 Nov 2015 16:45:13 +0000
Approved on Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:01:21 +0000