NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

alone limited attendance at these concerts to the more comfortably off.
Consequently, even as early as the 1920s the orchestra was in financial trouble.
The following press appeal spells it out:
‘It looks as though Newcastle were going to make a supreme effort to save its
only permanent orchestra. The Newcastle Philharmonic Orchestra has so far not
been appreciated at all commensurate with its merits, and no secret has been
made of the fact that it was faced with extinction because of a lamentable
languishing of public support. The committee rightly decided to take the public
into its confidence, tell them the circumstances, and give them a chance to
redeem their past delinquencies and the committee’s present deficiencies. They
embarked, as a last resort upon two experimental concerts to test, as it were, the
extent of the appreciation of orchestral music in Newcastle.
The first of these took place in the Palace Theatre last evening and everyone
with the best music at heart will be delighted to learn that the experiment
promises to prove a signal success. Almost every seat in the spacious theatre
was occupied – a condition of affairs at once inspiring to Mr Bainton and his
forces and encouraging to the committee, whose only ambition is to provide
Newcastle with a permanent professional orchestra not unworthy to be compared
to Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham. It is a laudable aim, and one
which it is hoped will succeed splendidly. Similar support for the second concert
on December 11 ought to place the orchestra on that permanent basis which will
ensure a regular series of orchestral concerts in Newcastle, a phase of music
which has hitherto been unaccountably starved.’
The orchestra survived its 1920s financial crises, however, and continued
giving concerts into the late 1930s. I was unable to ascertain whether or not the
orchestra engaged any visiting conductors or big name soloists to perform at
their concerts, but I think not. It appears to have been fairly self sufficient in this
respect. Perhaps it was a question of funds as fees for visiting artists could
mount up. Those they did engage were in the early stages of their careers and
would not have demanded large fees; Harriet Cohen, Sidone Goosens and Cyril
Smith. On the other hand it may have been that they genuinely felt it was not
necessary. Their close association with the Conservatoire gave them access to a
range of musical talents; Edgar Bainton, their conductor and Arthur Milner, were
both, in their own right, competent soloists. Milner wrote a piano concerto, which
was premiered with himself as soloist at one of the Philharmonic concerts.
The press announcement introducing the Philharmonic Orchestra in 1911 said
that only a fortnight earlier the author had introduced to the public the Newcastle
Symphony Orchestra, therefore, I think we can take it that these two orchestras
were founded at around the time. However, they were two very different animals,
in more ways than one; the Philharmonic being largely professional and male,
whilst the Symphony was chiefly made up of amateurs and most of these were
ladies. I could trace no records relating to the first twenty years of the Symphony
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