3 - Conducting the Royal Choral Society and the Leeds Festival (1880s–1890s): Joseph Barnby and Arthur Sullivan

Summary

During the month of January, pantomimes and other holiday entertainments banish concert music, and yet there are good grounds for believing that high-class concerts might attract large audiences during the holiday time. On Wednesday last, the Royal Albert Hall was attended by an audience of nearly 9,000 amateurs, representing the general public; this performance of Handel's Messiah not being included in the selection provided for subscribers. ‘Good wine needs no bush’, and metropolitan music lovers have long since known that the choir of over 800 voices trained by Mr. Barnby has no equal in any part of the universe.

‘Music. Royal Choral Society’, O (1890)

Then the pent up enthusiasm of the vast assemblage burst forth like a torrent. Cheer followed cheer, and the whole audience upstanding, handkerchiefs, books, or anything else that came handy were waved aloft, and the overpowered composer-conductor was subjected to a bombardment of flowers which the vocalists and ladies of the chorus showered upon him.

Arthur Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan (1899)

A light-hearted concert with a serious purpose took place at St James's Hall on 14 May 1880. Mounted to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children it was organized by Helen Bouverie, Viscountess Folkestone (who also performed). Appreciative members of the Royal Family populated the front row of the stalls. A photograph survives of the performers (Fig. 3.1), many of whom had profiles as conductors. Setting their musical gravitas aside, this group of musicians joined in a newsworthy performance of Romberg's Toy Symphony under Henry Leslie's baton. The two conductors discussed in this chapter undertook birdsong effects: Sullivan played the part of the cuckoo and Barnby supplied the nightingale. Meanwhile, the quail was assigned to Hallé, the bells to Benedict, the first violins were Manns and Cusins and the pianists were Cowen and John F. Barnett. The ‘wild’ approach of the first violinists, who played ‘in something like tune’, added to the hilarity. The Prince and Princess of Wales encored Sullivan's antics as the cuckoo. Barnby and Sullivan's involvement in the fun of the Toy Symphony in 1880 is emblematic of their membership of, and valued status within, advantageous musical, artistic and social circles; both men enjoyed active connections with the monarchy, belonged to gentlemen's clubs and were brother masons. They were also close personal friends.