Inside story of 167 years of Philharmonic music

Feb 25 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

A “STUPID” and “impertinent” snub by leading composer Edward Elgar to Liverpool’s music scene was uncovered last week.

A letter from Elgar, dated July, 1924, was found in Liverpool Philharmonic Hall’s archives.

In it, he turns down a coveted chamber music society presidency and rebukes the city for allowing orchestral concerts to disappear.

Archivists recently completed a two-year trawl of the Phil’s vaults to catalogue 167 years of documents including thousands of letters.

The archive is being unveiled today at the Picton Reading Room in the Central Library by the Philharmonic’s conductor Vasily Petrenko.

The archive also contains dramatic pictures of the original hall engulfed in flames when it was destroyed by fire in 1933.

In a letter to the city’s Rodewald chamber music society, Elgar turned down an invitation to be president of the society.

On July 2, 1924, he wrote: “I am much honoured by the invitation; I cannot accept the post of president.

“Alfred Rodewald was a very dear friend and if it were possible to carry on, under his name, some orchestral concerts I would be proud to be associated with the executive.

“Chamber music, in this case, is inadequate and it is a reproach to the musical taste of Liverpool that the orchestral concerts should have been allowed to disappear.”

The Rodewald Concert Society was named in honour of Alfred Rodewald, a Liverpool businessman and musician, who died in 1905 in his 40s, and who created and financed the Liverpool Orchestral Society.

The letter was forwarded to fellow-compose Ernest Bryson, who was offered the presidency after Elgar’s rebuff.

Accepting the position, Bryson called up Elgar for his “stupidity and impertinence”.

On July 28, he wrote to the society: “I return Sir Edward Elgar’s letter and do not understand why he should have seen fit to combine stupidity and impertinence in his reply to the society.”

The pictures of the Hope Street blaze show a crowd look-ing on as the Phil is gutted by fire. Opened in 1849, the concert hall was described as “the best in Europe” by Sir Thomas Beecham.

But the building was destroyed by the fire and the new hall was not completed until 1939.

The archives were catalogued after the Phil was awarded a £50,000 Heritage Lottery grant.

Mr Petrenko said: “The benefits of insulting the leading composer of the day are dubious, but the correspondence with Elgar certainly makes interesting reading.”

benschofield