The Art of Impresario

When Johann Peter Salomon brought Joseph Haydn to London in 1791 and again in 1794 he consolidated the composer's inter- national fame and his own reputation as a great impresario. This earned him considerable wealth and a tomb in Westminster Abbey. His was probably the first instance of sustained and successful Angle-Austrian musical management. Leopold Mozart's promotion of young Wolfgang during their stay in Ebury Street was amiably amateurish, the Royal Philharmonic Society's overtures to Beethoven a little half-hearted. Johann Strauss briefly amused Queen Victoria but did little more to win British hearts.

In the 1930's, while Sir George Frankenstein kept a fine musical salon for the select few in Belgravc Square, one agent's brave attempts to popularise Viennese orchestras were not much of a success and the 1935 visit of the Vienna Boys Choir left no cherished memories in the Augarten. Harry Low did rather better for Toni Praxmair's ensemble at a Regent Street restaurant and in Glasgow in 1937.

The Anglo-Austrian Music Society, though founded for quite a different purpose, clearly filled a managerial need. When I joined Otto Harpner in Kensington High Street in 1950, he had scored great successes with the Vienna State Opera and the Philharmonic, but was struggling to find a financial basis for such grand ventures. He had just discovered the very British art of the one-night stand concert tour, and together we perfected the system. Our teachers were Otto Diamant, who had found out about it just a little earlier, Charles Lockier the great Bristol impresario, the Taphouse brothers of Oxford and a half dozen kind and worthy managers of old-fashioned "music shops" in provincial cities. They were delighted that we wanted to bring good music to their towns, they sold our tickets not just for the small commission but because they truly loved music and because it brought customers into their shops who might buy some sheet music or a piano. They showed us how to place advertisements, posters and shop-cards to bring more buyers to their box offices, to get notices in the local press, and so to fill the local halls. Serious music was scarce in the provinces in those days, but - as long as it was not too wayout and had an entertainment value - there was a grateful audience.

We had our financial ups and downs - most of our competitors went out of business years ago - but the provincial concert tours have remained the main source of support of the Society and raised all the funds for the prestige concerts, the debut recitals, the scholarships. They helped the Society to keep its independence and its solvency. We never had need of grants, and have only recently begun to receive a measure of sponsorship for some very specific purposes. However, we often had friendly association with partners - Otto Diamant and Vernon Mosler's Concert Artists Promotion Company in the presentation of dancers and operetta; Victor Hochhauser for the Vienna Philharmonic and other orchestral concerts, the Praxmairs, and some of the Vienna Boys Choir; the Austrian Institute for a number of more recent debut rentals. We were always glad to share the glory - and the risk.

On Otto Harpner's untimely death in 1959 the management of the Society fell to me. I had wonderful help - from the successive chairmen of the Soceity, Hugh Howarth, Brian Fitzgerald and George Rizza, and from the committee members; from Otto's widow Lisa, who was a marvel in encouraging and caring for young artists; Anne Ellis whose managerial talents and unfailing success for the right thing to do were that proverbial pillar of strength; Martin Murray who invested his talents and imagination in the successful staging of choirs and folk ensembles; Robert Avery who built up the Vienna youth and music festivals; Jenny Lines who "created" the position of the Society's concert manager in the late 1960's and, most notably, Jane Fraser who filled it devotedly and superbly well through the 1970's and 1980's. Tony Fessler who has now taken over the management has our good wishes and all our support for guiding the Society, active and solvent, into the next century.

Much credit is due to them all and to so many others. The opinions, mistakes and omissions in this little book are mine alone.