St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace.R. Elkin, Queen's Hall 1893-1941 (Ryder, London 1944), p. 16, note, says 1858. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a frontage on Regent Street, and another in Piccadilly. Taking the orchestra into account, the main hall had seating for slightly over 2,000 persons.Elkin 1944, 16. It had a grand hall long and broad. The seating was distributed between ground floor, balcony, gallery and platform and it had excellent acoustics.R. Elkin, Royal Philharmonic - The Annals of the Royal Philharmonic Society (Ryder 1946), 67. On the ground floor were two smaller halls, one square; the other by ."Victorian London - Buildings, Monuments and Museums - St James's Hall" in the Victorian Dictionary The Hall was decorated in the 'Florentine' style, with features imitating the great Moorish Palace of the Alhambra. The Piccadilly facade was given a Gothic design, and the complex of two restaurants and three halls was hidden behind Nash's Quadrant.Hobhouse, Hermione. History of Regent Street (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1975), p. 84 Sir George Henschel recalled its 'dear old, uncomfortable, long, narrow, green-upholstered benches (pale-green horse-hair) with the numbers of the seats tied over the straight backs with bright pink tape, like office files.'H. Henschel, When Soft Voices Die (Methuen, London 1949).
The Hall was built jointly by two music publishing firms, Chappell & Co. and Cramer & Co., in the hope of attracting the growing audiences for fine musical performances that attended the Crystal Palace and the halls being built in the provinces. It stood empty for nearly a year after its opening.R. Pound, Sir Henry Wood (Cassell, London 1969), 34-35. For almost half a century thereafter, the Hall was London's principal concert hall,Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32, Chapter IV to be succeeded by Queen's Hall in the 1900s and later by Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall. It became famous for its 'Monday Pops' concerts and Ballad Concerts, as the home of the Philharmonic Society and the Christy Minstrels and for the many famous conductors and performers who gave important performances there.
Opening The first performance at the hall was The Hymn of Praise, sung by the Vocal Association, under Julius Benedict.C. Pearce, Sims Reeves - Fifty Years of Music in England (Stanley Paul, London 1924), pp. 205-07. Sims Reeves sang Beethoven's 'Adelaide' there (the first of many successes), accompanied by Arabella Goddard, in a concert at the end of May 1858. According to Reeves' biographer, 'The hall itself met with general approval, but the arrangements for chorus and orchestra were severely condemned.' In the same year, one of the first complete performances of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion to be heard in England was given there under William Sterndale Bennett, with Sims Reeves, Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, Charlotte Sainton-Dolby and Willoughby Weiss.Reeves, Sims. My Jubilee: or, Fifty Years of Artistic Life (Simpkin, Marshall, London 1889), pp. 178-79. cf W. Sterndale Bennett (Ed.), Grosse Passions-Musik composed by John Sebastian Bach (Lamborn Cock, Hutchings, London 1862).
The Christy Minstrels
The hall became known for its continuous production of blackface minstrelsy from 1862 until 1904.According to The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Vol. XXI, p. 726, the Christy Minstrels played at the theatre beginning in 1862 and later evolved into the Moore and Burgess Minstrels, which continued at the hall through 1904. See also this article.Notes to "Ray Andrews Classic English Banjo," citing Reynolds, Harry: Minstrel Memories: The Story of Burnt Cork Minstrelsy in Great Britain 1836-1927 (London, 1928) Known as the Christy Minstrels and later the Moore and Burgess Minstrels, the Hall's resident minstrel troupe performed in one of the smaller halls located on the ground floor near the restaurant, below the main hall.Elkin 1946, 67. Gilbert and Sullivan's 1893 comic opera, Utopia, Limited, contains a joke in which the Court of St. James's is purposely confused with St. James's Hall and its minstrel shows, and a parody of a minstrel number is included in the same scene.Utopia, Limited scene
In residence for the whole active life of the hall, the Minstrels had their permanent home there, but their interests often conflicted with those of the main hall. In January 1890, for instance, George Bernard Shaw wrote:At the Hallé orchestral concert... I was inhumanly tormented by a quadrille band which the proprietors of St James's Hall (who really ought to be examined by two doctors) had stationed within earshot of the concert-hall. The heavy tum-tum of the basses throbbed obscurely against the rhythms of Spohr and Berlioz all the evening, like a toothache through a troubled dream; and occasionally, during a pianissimo, or in one of Lady Hallé's eloquent pauses, the cornet would burst into vulgar melody in a remote key, and set us all flinching, squirming, shuddering, and grimacing hideously.'G. B. Shaw, London Music in 1888-89 as heard by Corno di Bassetto, etc (Constable, London 1937), 299-300. Only a fortnight later, the band, at first subdued, broke out in a 'wild strain of brazen minstrelsy' during the final bars of the funeral march in the Eroica Symphony. After the movement was applauded a member of the audience began calling out that a complaint should be lodged, and won general approval, hear, hear, and people standing up to look at him.Shaw 1937, 305-306. On one occasion Lady Henschel and her daughter went to hear Joseph Joachim play at a Saturday 'Pop', but were so aware of the 'rhythmic gay sounds, thumping and shimmering away in a most enlivening manner', that they decided to go and hear Moore and Burgess instead.H. Henschel, When Soft Voices Die (Methuen, London 1949), 66-67.
Monday and Saturday 'Pops' and Ballad Concerts
Samuel Arthur Chappell, one of the brothers in the Chappell & Co. firm of Bond Street music publishers, who concentrated on selling brass and woodwind instruments, together with his brother Thomas, devised the idea of the Monday Popular Concerts, which established the fame and popularity of the hall.Boosey, William. Fifty years of music, London: Ernest Benn Limited (1931) George Bernard Shaw reported that the concerts at the hall contributed greatly to the spread and enlightenment of musical taste in England.Shaw 1937, 297. Monday 'Pops' were held in the evening, and Saturday 'Pops' on Saturday afternoons. These were chamber-concerts. Their programmes were almost exclusively 'classical', and consisted of piano and organ recital, singers, violinists, string quartets and other chamber ensemble.Henschel 1949, 66-67. They were managed by John Boosey, and later by William Boosey, together with Chappell. In 1861 the Musical World observed: 'classical chamber music of the highest order is brought week after week within the reach of the shilling paying masses as it has now been no less than fifty-two times at St James's Hall.... swelling the total of the Monday Popular Concerts to no less than sixty-three within two years of their foundation.... Such a result is unparalleled in the history of musical entertainments.'C. Pearce 1924, pp. 231-32.
George Bernard Shaw gives an interesting narrative of the 'Pops' between 1888 and 1894.Shaw 1937, passim: G.B. Shaw, Musical Life in London 1890-1894 (Constable, London 1932), passim. Shaw admired the Joachim Quartet, led either by Joachim himself or often by Mme Wilma Norman-Neruda (Lady Hallé) (and later still by Eugène Ysaÿe), with ('modest') L. Ries (2nd violin), ('solemn') Herr Strauss (viola) and the ('gentle') cellist Alfredo Piatti. This was certainly the 'star turn' in that period.Henschel 1949, 66. (The epithets are George Henschel's.) They frequently played full works, or even groups of works, at the 'Pops': their larger ensemble was often heard in the Beethoven septet. Among soloists heard in 1888-90 (the 31st and 32nd seasons)Monday 27 January 1890 was the 1105th Pop were Charles Hallé, Alma Haas (Beethoven op. 110), Agnes Zimmerman (Waldstein), Edvard Grieg, Bernhard Stavenhagen (Schumann Papillons), Arthur de Greef (Chopin), pianists; Joseph Joachim (Brahms), Mme Norman Neruda, (Bach concerto for 2 violins), violin; Bertha Moore, Charles Santley (Erlkönig, To Anthea), Marguerite Hall (Schubert, Brahms, Henschel), singers.Shaw 1937, 40-42, 59-61, 68, 297-99, 318, 336-338. The concerts were mixed, often consisting of a chamber-work, some songs, and instrumental solos.
The Hall became known for the "London Ballad Concerts", which began in the 1860s and moved in January 1894 to Queen's Hall. They "were started... by Messrs Boosey 'for the performance of the CHOICEST ENGLISH VOCAL MUSIC by the MOST EMINENT ARTISTS'."Elkin 1944, 91.
The Philharmonic Society The Philharmonic Society of London, founded 1813, until 1869 gave its concerts in its rooms at Hanover Square, which had seating for only about 800. The Society decided to move permanently to St James's Hall, and a complimentary additional concert, held at St James's Hall, was given to its subscribers at the end of the 1868–69 season. Charles Santley, Charles Hallé, Thérèse Tietjens and Christina Nilsson were the soloists.Elkin 1946, 65. When the move was made, the Society remodelled its charges to obtain a wider audience and compete with the Crystal Palace and other large venues, and introduced annotated programmes. The Society remained at the hall until 28 February 1894, when it moved to the Queen's Hall.Elkin 1944, 52.
There were major events in 1870–71, when a Beethoven centenary season was held, with all nine symphonies performed. The bust of Beethoven by Johann Nepomuk Schaller was presented to the Society and collected (in Pest, Hungary) by Sir William Cusins. It was exhibited at the Society's first concert in 1871, and a replica was placed at the front of the platform at every Philharmonic concert thereafter. The Society's Gold Medal incorporated an image of the bust. Another major event of 1871 was the original presentation of medals to ten distinguished musicians.Elkin 1946, 67-71.
Notable Philharmonic performers at St James's Hall In 1871, Charles Gounod conducted a concert of his music. In 1873 Brahms's A German Requiem had its English premiere; Edward Lloyd first sang before the Society; and Hans von Bülow made his London debut, playing Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto and Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. In 1874, Pablo de Sarasate and Camille Saint-Saëns played there, and in 1875, August Wilhelmj. Other Philharmonic Society highlights of the next few years included performances by George Henschel, Xaver Scharwenka, Émile Sauret, Joseph Joachim and Edward Dannreuther.Elkin 1946, 72-73.
Changes of management were introduced in 1881 following the Society's recovery from a financial crisis. Concerts were moved from Monday to Thursday evenings, to make way for the Monday Night Popular Chamber-Concerts, known as the 'Pops'.Elkin 1946, 76. The 1881 season included two performances of Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette; Scharwenka gave the British premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, and Eugen d'Albert and Emma Albani appeared before the Society. Over the next two years many choral works were given with the Philharmonic Choir, including works by Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Weber, Beethoven and Brahms.Elkin 1946, 77-78.