Opening of Royal Albert Hall

Synopsis

In London on today’s date in 1871 an audience gathered in the newly-finished Royal Albert Hall to attend the first-ever concert to be performed there. This occurred a month before the official opening of this famous Victorian edifice as a special thank-you for the workers who constructed the building.

The orchestra that played that concert was famous in its day — though now totally forgotten. It was called The Wandering Minstrels and its players were all British aristocrats — Lords, Right Honourables, and senior military — who from 1861 to 1896 played exclusively for charity events. One strict rule of membership was that only amateur musicians were allowed. If you earned even one penny as a professional, you were out.

That happened to one member, composer Frederick Clay, who had to leave The Wandering Minstrels when music he wrote for the stage started to pull in a few pennies. Clay even collaborated with W.S. Gilbert, the famous librettist for Arthur Sullivan, who occasionally performed as a guest with The Wandering Minstrels.

And yes, it’s likely that the Gilbert & Sullivan song “A Wandering Minstrel I” from The Mikado was an in-joke reference to the aristocratic orchestra, especially since Nanki-Poo, who sings it, was (after all) a nobleman in disguise.

Music Played in Today's Program

W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) & Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900): ‘A Wand’ring Minstrel I,’ from The Mikado; D’Oyly Carte Opera Company; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Royston Nash, conductor; London/Decca 425190

On This Day

Births

• 1727 - French composer and organist Armand-Louis Couperin, in Paris

• 1943 - George Harrison (of the Beatles), in Liverpool, England

Deaths

• 1643 - Italian composer Marco da Gagliano, age 60, in Florence;

• 1682 - Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, age 37, is murdered in Genoa, apparently in retaliation for running off with a Venetian nobleman's mistress;

• 1906 - Russian composer Anton Arensky, age 44, in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Terijoki, Finland (Julian date: Feb. 12);

Premieres

• 1705 - Handel: opera Nero, in Hamburg. This was Handel’s second opera.

• 1850 - R. Schumann: Concertstück (Concert Piece) for Four Horns and Orchestra, by the horn quartet of Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Julius Rietz conducting that orchestra

• 1877 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic-fantasy Fancesca da Rimini, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Mar. 9)

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: opera The Maid or Orleans, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Feb. 13)

• 1888 - Benjamin Godard: opera Jocelyn, in Brussels

• 1905 - Koussevitzky: Double-Bass Concerto, in Moscow, with the composer as soloist (Julian date: Feb. 12)

• 1911 - Victor Herbert: opera Natoma, in Philadelphia

• 1932 - Carl Ruggles: Sun-Treader for orchestra, by the Paris Symphony, Nicholas Slonimsky conducting

• 1973 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical A Little Night Music

• 1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 3, by the New York Philharmonic, Jahja Ling conducting

• 2001 - Robert Capanna: String Quartet No. 2, in Philadelphia, by the Mendelssohn String Quartet