Wigmore Hall, a brief history
Wigmore Hall was built in 1901 by the German piano firm Bechstein next to its showrooms on Wigmore Street. The Hall was intended to provide a venue both grandly impressive and yet intimate enough for recitals. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it opened with two gala concerts on 31 May and 1 June 1901, featuring the Italian pianist Ferrucio Busoni, the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, the Ukrainian pianist Vladimir de Pachmann and several others.
Designed by the leading English architect Thomas Collcutt in Renaissance style, using alabaster and marble walls, flooring and stairway, the celebrated acoustics soon attracted great artists including Artur Schnabel, Pablo Sarasate, Percy Grainger, Myra Hess, Artur Rubinstein and Camille Saint-Saëns.
The outbreak of war in 1914 brought a political climate hostile to German firms in London: even Melba was criticised for singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ accompanied on a Bechstein. At auction in 1916, the entire business - including studios, offices, warehouses, 137 pianos and the Hall itself - was sold to Debenhams for £56,500. The Hall alone had cost £100,000 to build. Since reopening as Wigmore Hall in 1917, the roll call of artists appearing has included Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Sergey Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, Andrés Segovia, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc, Shura Cherkassky, the Amadeus Quartet and Jacqueline du Pré. In modern times the list has gone on to include such leading artists as András Schiff, the Takács Quartet, Brigitte Fassbaender, Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Olaf Bär, Dame Felicity Lott, Ann Murray DBE, Sir Thomas Allen, Cecilia Bartoli, Thomas Hampson, Dame Margaret Price, Anne Sofie von Otter, Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake, Matthias Goerne, Roger Vignoles, Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, Leif Ove Andsnes, The Lindsays, the Belcea, Borodin, Emerson, Endellion and Hagen Quartets, the Academy of Ancient Music, The English Concert and The King's Consort.
William Lyne became the Hall's Director in 1966, and is credited with building Wigmore Hall's international artistic reputation as one of the leading recital halls. The Hall was the first to introduce themed seasons, with the Fauré Series in 1979/80: in the course of twenty-two concerts all Fauré's chamber works and instrumental sonatas, as well as a substantial selection of the instrumental music and songs, were performed. Subsequent series have been devoted to the complete Britten songs, Schumann, Purcell, Haydn, Bartók, Janáček, Bach, Schubert, Shostakovich, British Music, late Romantics, French music and many others.
John Gilhooly was appointed as Director in 2005, having previously been executive director since December 2000. Mr Gilhooly led the Hall’s £4m Capital appeal and £3m refurbishment project (in 2004) which was widely praised for being completed on time and on budget. He has also overseen the complex negotiations around the purchase of a long-term lease for the venue and is currently leading a new £3.1m development appeal, to which £2.4m has now been pledged. Had the Hall not obtained the lease when it did, crippling rent increases would have curtailed the scope of the Hall’s artistic remit, and it would no longer maintain its international pre-eminence.
Since 2005 John Gilhooly has overseen all executive and artistic matters and recent seasons have seen the Hall reach an all-time high in terms of fundraising, concert income and concert attendance. In January 2008 Luke Bedford was named as the Hall’s first-ever Composer-in-Residence and a pledge of £500,000 towards the commissioning of new music was also announced.
In October 2005, Mr Gilhooly launched the Hall’s own CD label ‘Wigmore Hall Live’, with the intention of bringing the Hall’s musical programme to a much wider international audience. Wigmore Hall Live already boasts 21 releases from recent and archive recitals, which have garnered a great deal of critical praise. With a peerless acoustic and a distinguished roster of artists, Wigmore Hall Live will continue to be a cherished catalogue and archive of wonderful concerts at the highest level.
In the ten years since it was started, the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition has attracted applications of international standard from all over the world. We are proud to be reinstating this prestigious competition and in doing so highlighting our unique position as a leading song recital venue, our ongoing commitment to this art form and to the fostering of emerging singers and pianists dedicated to the performance of song. We are very grateful to the Kohn Foundation for its crucial support in underpinning the competition financially in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
