Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
concerts designated popular
Johann Kruse and the London Popular Concerts It is a challenge to define the parameters of this venerable and beloved fixture of nineteenth-century London concert life. Its name alone seems designed to create maximum confusion. First, “popular” is hard to define. One explanation is when they began, they were meant to be popular in content, … Read more
Even though it is Palm Sunday, the big stores are open, for the most part (Wertheim is one exception; they are never open on Sundays.) There are lots of sales advertised in the papers for marzipan Easter eggs, tennis rackets, etc. The Mozartsaal-Orchestra is trying to survive, but putting a concert opposite another exactly of … Read more
In the advertisements, there is nothing to indicate that the concerts of Sven Scholander (1860-1936) and Robert Kothe (1869-1944) were in a different category than the others. But we would not classify their folk songs with lute accompaniment as classical music today. Scholander gave four concerts in 1907 that were in Bechstein Hall, which held … Read more
The price of a “popular” ticket was cheap and held remarkably steady. Tickets less than 1 mark could still be found in 1907, and only the premium seats of a popular concert would cost more than 2 M. This held from about 1880 to at least 1907, with a regular ticket usually not more than … Read more
From the beginning, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra distinguished between their main offerings and their “popular” concerts. Popular was the general term for cheaper concerts, and these were usually priced at 1 M., at least before World War One. Besides being cheap, these concerts were also tremendously popular for over fifty years. The concerts were held … Read more
Robert Hausmann’s Piano Trio with his Hochschule colleagues Heinrich Barth (piano) and Heinrich de Ahna (violin) began giving concerts in 1875 and started a subscription series in 1878. They lasted for thirty years, with only one change in personnel, when Emanuel Wirth took over after de Ahna died in 1892. In contrast to the Joachim Quartet … Read more
What made Berlin so special as a city for music? Was it true that art music was appreciated more or better than in other cities? Are there material circumstances that account for it, or was it a self-fulfilling prophecy, part of an ideology of German identity? One aspect of Berlin’s concert life was remarked upon … Read more