NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

1936: 17 th June. There had been a considerable deficit for the season
owing to the Election and the Beecham Concert. Hamilton Harty and John
Barbirolli were both approached to conduct the orchestra at a forthcoming
concert but withdrew, Malcolm Sargent, who could always be relied upon,
accepted and at a reduced fee.
1938: December. Malcolm Sargent was asked to come himself to
rehearsals and not send his deputy. His name was Reginald Goodall. To save
money it was decided to engage no wind but play the wind part on the piano.
The last entry concerned a meeting in the City Hall on 27 th August 1941 when
it was agreed that the orchestra should remain in abeyance during the war.
The above, all too brief, but fascinating glimpse into the problems of running
an orchestra in Newcastle in the 1930s is illuminating, even though the
organisation was more in the nature of a friendly society committed to making
good music and (Entertainment Tax aside) bringing it to the public at least once a
year. What I found so interesting was the Society’s ability to involve so many
outstanding English conductors including Sargent’s deputy, the later
outstanding, Reginald Goodall. I think the willingness of these conductors to be
associated with the Newcastle Symphony Orchestra says much for the
orchestra’s overall standard. They normally gave only one concert a year but
always under a first rate conductor. From 1917 to 1935 they had Hamilton Harty
conduct eight times, Henry Wood twice and in 1927 when the orchestra mounted
a Beethoven festival over two days they engaged both these conductors at the
same time. For a period in the 1920s they had Dr Whittaker, from the
Conservatoire as their deputy conductor and during the 1930s Malcolm Sargent
appears to have maintained a close association with the orchestra.
In addition to these two semi-permanent orchestras there were two other
occasions in the year when the musicians of Newcastle were called upon to form
themselves into an orchestra of symphonic proportions and perform at a public
concert. This was at the annual concerts organised by the Northern Musicians’
Benevolent Society and the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union . How long these
events had been taking place is difficult to say at this distance in time but the
Society concerts probably started about 1889 and the Union’s concerts around
1900. The Society had an impressive committee headed up by Sir
A.C.Mackenzie, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, and twenty-seven
Vice-Presidents including many influential names from the area. I have no detail
on the make up of the Union but they could manage to rustle up an eight-man
concert committee when it came to organising the annual event. Both
organisations were able to assemble a sizeable symphony orchestra, but
whereas the Society seems to have had a degree of success on the night, the
Union’s performances (judging by first hand comments on a programme for 26 th
September 1915) were pretty awful. A crude comparison of personnel in the
orchestras assembled by the Society and the Union shows no more than a half
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