NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...
NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...
NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN<br />
NEW BEGINNINGS<br />
Concert life in Newcastle by the 1950s fell into a pattern, which produced few<br />
surprises. In the theatre there was the annual visit of the Carl Rosa Opera and<br />
the occasional ballet company. At the City Hall there were regular seasons of<br />
orchestral concerts by the Halle, The Liverpool and the Yorkshire Orchestras<br />
playing the standard repertoire. Interspersed between these regular orchestral<br />
concerts were visits by solo artists on the touring circuit, some of whom came a<br />
number of years running, others who gave one performance and were never<br />
seen again. The same people went to the same concerts and the size of the<br />
audience depended upon whether the artist appearing was a star personality –<br />
someone who had appeared in a Hollywood musical film or was a big name and<br />
sold a lot of records – which meant that for most of the routine orchestral<br />
concerts and more familiar artists there were often empty seats. Image rather<br />
than merit was the criteria by which the average music lover decided whether or<br />
not to spend his or her 3/6 (20p) on a seat at the City Hall. Oddly enough this in<br />
essence was the very thing the writer in the Musical Times complained about<br />
back in 1914, which seems also to have been a criticism made in the 19 th<br />
century. Hey-ho! Not all the big names that toured the country came to<br />
Newcastle. Why some did and others preferred not to remains a mystery. The<br />
climate was certainly a factor when it came to opera singers from the sunnier<br />
climes. One of my greatest disappointments was when Tito Schipa, tenor, and<br />
master of Bel Canto, cancelled his 1950s visit for reasons of climate and the<br />
effect it might have on his voice. Poor bookings would have been another factor<br />
– by the 1950s Newcastle’s image as a cultural town was considerably<br />
diminished. It relied entirely on the outside world for its music. It had no orchestra<br />
of its own and the irony of the situation was that the ratepayers of Newcastle<br />
were subsidising the Halle Orchestra from Manchester. A leaflet announcing the<br />
orchestra’s forthcoming 1953-54 Season reads;<br />
‘The concerts given last Season attracted large but not “capacity” audiences.<br />
However, the season as a whole cannot be regarded as unsatisfactory. And it is<br />
most gratifying to record that the Newcastle Corporation has recognised whereby<br />
the loss on the Season was kept within reasonable bounds. The Society is most<br />
grateful to the Corporation and hopes that that body will make its grant an annual<br />
one the better to ensure the continued visits of this world-famous Orchestra and<br />
its equally eminent Conductor’.<br />
The Halle’s eminent conductor, apparently not content with being subsidised by<br />
the Newcastle City Council (and the Arts Council) used to harangue his captive<br />
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