Wiggers

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On Sunday I went to a concert at the Wigmore Hall. Wiggers works its socks off: they put on about 400 performances annually and don’t just sit back and enjoy the million pounds they get in funding from the Arts Council; they both raise money and sell tickets – hoorah!

The hall’s history may interest you. It was built around 1900 and called the Bechstein Hall, after C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik, the German piano manufacturer, whose showroom was next door. The architect was Thomas Collcutt who was also responsible for the Savoy Hotel and the Palace Theatre. The First World War was not just bad for German Shepherds (they had to be called Alsatians) and the Battenbergs (Mountbattens), it finished Bechstein Pianofortefabrik in London.

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The company closed in 1916 after the passing of the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act and all its property including the concert hall and showrooms was seized. The hall was sold as alien property at auction to Debenhams for £56,500 – a figure considerably short of the £100,000 cost of the building. It was then rechristened Wigmore Hall and opened under its new name, presumably chosen because of its location on Wigmore Street, in 1917.

It has near-perfect acoustics and attracts artists of the highest calibre. It also attracts an attentive and, musically, well-informed audience. They are somewhat elderly which should be a cause for concern for the long-term future of this world class venue. However, on Sunday the 11.30 concert played to a full house (545) with a row standing at the back. A pity the Church of England cannot attract those numbers.

You may also be interested in the Arts and Crafts cupola above the stage, designed by Gerald Moira and executed by Frank Lynn Jenkins.

 

6 comments

  1. There was an old Bechstein grand piano in my old prep school, Brackenber. The headmaster, John Craig, invariably accompanied us all to a hymn before classes began.

    Brackenber was a Victorian villa, so the connecting door between two classrooms was opened and a lectern was always placed in the middle.

    1. I didn’t know that, thank you. Do you think Paula Best, talking on the YouTube clip, might have an Irish connection too?

  3. Perhaps the best known name change brought about by the First World War was that of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, effected by royal proclamation on 17th July 1917. Incidentally after Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip in 1947 Lord Mountbatten hoped to change Windsor to Mountbatten but Queen Mary was having none of it, but that, as they say, is another story.

    1. Have now read the link and how interesting; Wiggers are luckers to have such a round peg in a round hole.

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