East Midlands Region

Nottingham Harmonic Society

celebrated their 150th anniversary with special events in 2005-6

The Society was founded 150 years ago by a group of music enthusiasts. In those days, since there was no recorded music and no radio, there was no means of hearing music other than travelling to hear an orchestra in some centre large enough to support one, or to try to perform the music yourself. Very few people had the ability to travel far, so many small groups of musical people assembled to practice and perform together. In 1846, a group started to assemble under the leadership of a Nottingham gentleman, Mr Alfred Lowe, who brought together several smaller groups into a choir to practice part-songs and madrigals, and to extend their general musical knowledge. At about the same time, a separate differently focused group was flourishing - The Mechanics Institute. They had grown and had built a centre for themselves which included a Lecture Hall. This building became a centre for the literary, social and artistic life of Nottingham. Mr Lowe also happened to be a pivotal member of this body. Singing classes were started in the Institute, which inevitably drew in the part-song and madrigal group assembled by Mr Lowe. Instrumentalists also joined, and The Nottingham Sacred Harmonic Society was formally founded ten years later, as a choir and orchestra for the musical education of the people of Nottingham.

During the first fifty years of its existence, Charles Halle was a semi-regular visiting conductor, Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted a performance of his oratorio The Martyr of Antioch and in the same season Dr Hans Richter conducted a concert of music by Dvorak.
By the turn of the century the Society had become sufficiently well-known and proficient that Henry Wood, later Sir Henry Wood, conductor of the first Promenade Concerts, used to travel up from London by train once a week to rehearse the Choir and Orchestra. The works they performed included the Handel Oratorios, the large choral works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart etc. but also relatively modern works for the time: Wagner Operas (in concert form), Parry and Gade, thus fulfilling its educational role.

Through the 1930s the Society flourished under the batons of a series of well-known conductors and choral trainers such as Roy Henderson and Sir Hamilton Harty. The appointment in 1937 of Herbert Bardgett saw the beginning of a long and distinguished period of musical achievement under the guidance of this remarkably gifted choral director. Noel Cox took over from Herbert Bardgett in 1949 and remained the Society’s conductor and trainer into the 1970s. His increasing responsibilities at the Royal Academy of Music eventually made it impossible for him to continue his leadership.

The Nottingham Harmonic Society thus established itself as one of the leading provincial choruses in Britain. The Society now benefits from the directorship of Neil Page, who took up his post at the beginning of 1986 following his appointment as Director of Music at Uppingham School in 1985. This 150th Anniversary season was also Neil’s 20th Anniversary as our Musical Director.

The Chorus has regularly performed with guest conductors in addition to its Principal Conductor. In the more recent part of its long history Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent, Owain Arwel Hughes, Norman Del Mar, James Loughran and George Weldon are among those who have worked with the chorus. In the last few years the Society has been privileged to be directed on several occasions by Laszlo Heltay, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Groves and Sir David Willcocks.

The full choir numbering over 200 singers performed at the opening of Nottingham’s magnificent Royal Concert Hall, which has become the venue for the majority of the Society’s concerts. In addition to its concerts in the Royal Concert Hall the Chorus has accepted invitations on numerous occasions to perform in other venues including the Royal Albert Hall.