Chapter 3 - George Smart’s Concert Activities: 1800–25

Summary

GEORGE Smart's contribution to concert activity in the capital was both wideranging and distinctive. He included serious contemporary symphonic music in his programmes, and began championing the music of Beethoven from at least 1807. He was subsequently to include similar repertoire at Billington, Braham, and Naldi's series of Concerts from 1808–10. There is evidence that Smart tried to ensure a consistent group of instrumental performers and attempted to instil a culture of effective and disciplined rehearsal. With considerable entrepreneurial skill Smart took concert life to the middle classes of the City and attempted to create an audience there for serious symphonic music. At the same time he established a successful series of oratorio concerts in the West End of London and introduced new repertoire to these at every opportunity. Finally, he played a key role in the establishment of the Philharmonic Society and the founding of the Royal Academy of Music.

As will be evident from the detailed evidence presented below, Smart's concert activities increased rapidly as his reputation grew. The following is a survey of his many significant projects, starting with his own record of the concerts he conducted (Table 2).

It is interesting to set Smart's conducting records against the totals in Table 1 (Chapter 2). In 1805 he conducted only two public concerts, rising to seven in 1810, but after this, his share of the total increased dramatically, rising to twenty in 1815, thirty-three in 1820, and twenty-four in 1825. As a percentage of the total number of public concerts in these years this represents 22 per cent, 41 per cent, and 31 per cent respectively, a significant proportion. In addition, he noted having conducted thirty-three private concerts in 1825, which must also have been a sizeable proportion, although it is impossible to know how many private concerts took place in that year. By 1830, when public concert series in London had dwindled, his reputation grew as a festival conductor and over half his public engagements took place outside the capital.

Thus, it can be seen that Smart had reached a position of some dominance by 1825, when he was able to note that he had conducted a total of sixty-two concerts, the overwhelming majority of which were private but with a notable tally of twenty-four public concerts, almost a third of the total of public concerts for that season.