Thirty Years of Musical Life in London

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56-57

text excerpt

August Manns still an active veteran, though now in his seventy-ninth year has the qualities of a purely orchestral conductor in a far higher degree than they were ever possessed by Costa. His work at the Crystal Palace from 1855 to 1900, alike in its educational aspect and its conspicuously beneficial encouragement of native art, will endure, a lasting monument of industry, catholicity of taste, and consistent loftiness of purpose. At Sydenham it was that Arthur Sullivan was first prof- fered a helping hand by the performance of his "Tempest" music on his return from Leipsic (April, 1862). Thither did Sir George -Grove- sometime secretary of the Crystal Palace Com- pany and writer of the luminous analytical notes that so materially enhanced the enjoyment of the famous Saturday Concerts convey the precious Schubert manuscripts which he had rescued from dust and oblivion in Vienna. There, under the aegis of August Manns, was solved for the first time in England the problem of cheap "classical" orchestral concerts that should attract the masses and initiate them into the delight of listening to good music. There I heard my first symphony (it was Beethoven's "Pastoral"); and there, Saturday after Saturday, I heard the most celebrated soloists that visited our British shores from Rubinstein and Clara Schumann to Paderewski, from Joachim to Sarasate, from Piatti to Hausmann and Hugo Becker. To attend these concerts regularly was a musical education in itself.

excerpt from 'Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900' pp. 56-57 (234 words)

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