‘Il n’y a pas de ville au monde, j’en suis convaincu, où l’on consomme autant de musique qu’à Londres’ (Berlioz, 1851)
[‘I am convinced that there is no city in the world where as much music is consumed as in London’]
The following page from the Illustrated London News of 4 May 1850 vividly illustrates what Berlioz was to write about London the following year during his visit to attend the Great Exhibition of 1851. A number of venues associated with his concerts are mentioned in the page (Exeter Hall, Hanover Square Rooms, Willis’s Rooms), as are several major musical institutions of London (the Beethoven Quartet Society, the Philharmonic Society, the London Sacred Harmonic Society, the Musical Union), and also individual musicians or critics with whom Berlioz came into contact during his stays in London (among others Ella, Ernst, Chorley, Costa, Osborne and Sainton).
The text below and the image which accompanies it have been scanned from the Illustrated London News of 4 May 1850 in our own collection.
© Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin; all rights of reproduction reserved.
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