NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

permanent Wartime restrictions applied at these concerts, which took place on
Thursdays (later Fridays) from 1.15 to 2.0pm. and the notice pointed out that
owing to the strictness of rationing, it would be impossible to provide a full
canteen for concert-goers, but that tea would be served, and patrons were invited
to bring sandwiches or other suitable refreshment. As with the National Gallery
concerts in London these informal weekly concerts were a wonderful opportunity
of hearing good music and were open to anyone and everyone who could spare
the time.
The mainstay of these mid-day concerts, were solo piano recitals and the list
of names of those who played over six years reads like a ‘Who Was Who’ on the
English piano circuit at the time. The one constant factor was Elsie Winstanley
from the Newcastle Conservatoire, who seems to have been the resident
accompanist, soloist and possibly many other things at a time when everyone
was ‘expected to do their bit’ In addition to the piano recitals were song recitals,
quartets, trios and even a quintet and a wide range of music was covered given
the limited resources available. Kathleen Ferrier appeared twice in 1942 and
Isobel Baillie gave a varied song recital in 1947, of works by Arne, Purcell, Bach,
Schumann, Schubert, Grieg, Delius and Hamilton Harty. In March 1946 there
was a programme (well ahead of its time) of old music on old instruments: Lute,
Viol and Voila d’Amore, at which members of the audience were invited to
inspect the instruments after the concert. The Bach Choir performed in 1942
under J.A.Westrup, Professor of Music in the University of Oxford. The final
concert in the series was a piano recital by Ella Pounder, who played a Haydn
sonata, Rhapsodies and Intermezzi by Brahms, Prelude in C by Prokovieff and a
Chopin Ballade. The recital was of no great significance in itself but it marked the
end of this experiment. It was an experiment that did not fulfil Mr Stevenson’s
highest hopes and proved unsustainable for whatever reason but I feel sure he
would have derived some satisfaction from the fact that his Lunch Time Concerts
lasted one year longer than those at the National Gallery, London.
In researching this period of Newcastle’s musical history I was amazed to find
how much music making was actually going on around me in Newcastle in those
early war years. At the time music was something I only listened to on
gramophone records, on the wireless and in Technicolor soundbytes at the
cinema. No one told me that the London Philharmonic Orchestra were
performing twice nightly at the Empire Theatre, conducted by Malcolm Sargent
on weekdays and on Saturdays by Basil Cameron, who was Basil Hindenberg
before he was advised to change his German name to Cameron. Nor did anyone
mention that the Carl Rosa Opera Co were helping maintain wartime spirits at the
Theatre Royal, as also were the visiting Sadlers Wells opera and ballet
companies. Another opera group of touring singers and musicians calling
themselves the Albion Opera Co. were also appearing at the Theatre Royal and
in 1942 mounted a wartime production of Offenbach’s ‘Tales of Hoffman’ starring
Peter Peers and Victoria Sladen with an orchestra conducted by Walter
Susskind, who had escaped from Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile at the City Hall the
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