NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

y The Lord Mayor. In addition there were symphony concerts conducted by
Capt. Amers that featured distinguished soloists including Arthur de Greef,
Solomon and Edgar Bainton; pianists, and Marie Wilson, Sonia Moldawski and
Alfred Wall; violinists. There were eighteen military bands engaged over the
period and twenty-two colliery and works bands. Two brass band contests were
held with the generous support of the Newcastle Chronicle and proved a great
success. At the end of the contest the massed bands were conducted by the
Mayor, who said, ‘ one hundred trombones swelling out the bass line of the hymn
tune, ‘Eventide’ with the other harmonies blending in sympathetic volume,
brought a thrill to the spine of all who heard it’.
The City Hall, centrally located on Northumberland Road, became Newcastle’s
main concert venue almost from the moment it was opened, although strictly
speaking it was constructed as a general purpose hall and not specifically as a
concert hall. Musically speaking it appears to have got off to a slow start but we
do know that in 1929 the YMCA Choral Society performed Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in
the hall and in 1931 the Glasgow Orpheus Choir appeared under its conductor
Hugh Roberton. There followed a series of International Celebrity Concerts
throughout the 1930s with visits by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under
Furtwaengler, playing Bach, Beethoven, Wagner and Richard Strauss, and the
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mengleberg and Beecham. The
London Philharmonic Orchestra played also under Sir Thomas Beecham and the
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Rafael Kubelik played a Czech
programme. A young Yehudi Menhuin, before becoming internationally known
through his appearance in a Hollywood musical film, gave a recital, as did Ida
Haendel, violinist, who appeared on the same bill as a soprano called, Beniamina
Pinza, of whom I can find no trace but might have been the daughter of the great
bass, Ezio Pinza. The famous Negro singer, actor and film star, Paul Robeson,
who unfortunately blighted his career through his Communist leanings, gave a
recital and would return again. There were concerted operatic recitals by mixed
groups of singers, one of which was particularly notable with singers Eva Turner,
Sabine Kalter, Dino Borgioli and John Brownlee. Solomon, the concert pianist
appeared under the auspices of the North of England Pianoforte Society (1936)
and a few months before the outbreak of World War II Malcolm Sargent
conducted perhaps the last concert by the Newcastle Symphony Orchestra in a
programme of music by Elgar, Cesar Franck and Dvorak.
The new hall did not have the monopoly on the best of classical music in town;
however, this was to be heard at the Assembly Rooms where the Chamber
Music Society were still holding their concerts. By 1927 they had reached their
37 th season, when Madam Suggia, the cellist made immortal by Augustus John,
the artist, who painted her playing her cello in 1923. gave a recital. Myra Hess
and Jelly D’Aranyi gave a violin and piano recital together in December 1937
playing sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms and Cesar Franck. They appeared
together many times as a duo pre war and were close personal friends yet whilst
D’Aranyi acknowledged the friendship and devoted a whole chapter to it in her
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