NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

successful, such as (once again!) Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in April 1843 and
performances of Mozart’s 12 th Mass and Haydn’s Creation Part 1, two days later.
But the real impact of the theatre upon the town’s musical heritage lay in the
stage productions with music, which I shall deal with in more detail in a later
chapter. Many of these early musical concerts were in aid of charity such as
those given in October 1834 in the Large Assembly Rooms by a body calling
itself, the Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle Amateur Concerts. The press
review following the concerts talks of the instrumental band consisting of 50 and
60 performers – forming altogether the largest band ever heard in this town – but
then goes on to raise the often to be repeated statement, ‘ the opportunity of
practice only is wanting to rescue Newcastle from the reproach of being the only
large town in England, in which an efficient band cannot be got together’ I doubt
whether that was entirely true as early as 1834, bearing in mind that the
Manchester and Liverpool orchestras were amongst the first in the 1840s and
1850s. but the words did have a prophetic ring of truth about them.
There does seem to have been a flurry of musical activity in the town around
this time but it has to be said, not of a very high standard. I refer here more to the
content than the performers, who were mostly amateurs anyway. Reading
through the many programmes from this period it becomes apparent that there is
a sameness about them all. I have already mentioned the predominance of
Handel and audiences’ penchant for glees, catches, ballads and songs of every
kind but what of the instrumental pieces programmed and who were the popular
composers of the time I noticed that Bach’s name was listed once and Mozart a
couple of times but most of the others are long forgotten. Who today knows
Anfossi, Davaux, Mahor, Mazzinghi, Rigel, Rofetti or Rohde to mention but only
seven of them. On the other hand the cognoscenti might just be familiar with
Kozeluh, (1747-1815) a Czech, who was contemptible of Mozart and had no time
for Beethoven (Beethoven called him Miserabilis) and who was considered the
greatest composer in Europe in 1800 but by 1830 was forgotten. Or, Krumpholtz,
(1742-1790) who, in his day was considered the world’s greatest harpist. All his
musical compositions are said to have included the instrument. Alas! He was
destined to a certain musical obscurity in this world when he threw himself into
the icy River Seine in Paris after his young wife and favourite pupil, eloped to
London with an Adonis-like concert pianist, but no doubt he achieved immortality
in the next world having wisely chosen the right instrument in this one.
The trouble with concerts in Newcastle at around this period seems to have
been that no one was setting critical standards and popularity was dictating
demand. The Phil-Harmonic Society is a good example in that its original
objective was ‘the refinement of the public taste, by the performance of classical
music’ and it ended up the most popular ball in town. It could be said that
Newcastle was lapsing into a sort of musical provincialism, run by local
musicians. But then Charles Avison had been a local musician. The difference
was that he had kept his finger firmly on the musical pulse of his day and this
was reflected in his compositions. He had also endeavoured to set high critical
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