Berlioz in London
Willis’ Rooms – Musical Union
On 7 April 1848 Berlioz conducted here his Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust, in response to an invitation by the then new Amateur Musical Society. The March was enthusiastically received and encored by the audience.
The Musical Union, which used to hold their matinées in this place, was founded by John Ella "for the cultivation of chamber music", and was at the height of its influence in the 1840s. Ella made a practice of inviting all the distinguished foreigners staying in London to attend the matinées. Berlioz attended some of these during his visits to London, and comments on the institution in his Les Soirées de l’Orchestre (21st evening).
The picture included here is a lithograph made in 1853 after a drawing by Charles Baugniet (1814-1886). The lithograph was sold in those days under the title of "L’Analyse. Souvenir of the Musical Union (Ninth Season)" and shows from right to left: Ella, Berlioz, Molique, Spohr, Lindpaintner, Baumann, Barret, Hiller, Jarett, Pratten, Lazarus, Vieuxtemps, Blumenthal, Goffrié, Blagrove ans Bazzini. At the time that this picture was drawn Berlioz was in London to stage his Benvenuto Cellini at the Opera in Covent Garden. Ferdinand Hiller, a friend of Berlioz since his student days at the Paris Conservatoire, was present at the only performance of the opera on 25 June 1853. See Theatre Royal Covent Garden for details of that eventful evening.
We are most grateful to Mike Joyce for sending us this photograph taken by him from an original engraving he found in London in the early 1970s, and to Gunther Braam for identifying its date, those present in it and other details on its provenance.
L’Analyse – Souvenir of the Musical Union
(Ninth Season)
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