Chamber Music

Chamber music was one of the Anglo-Austrian Music Society's earliest loves. In the 1940s we list London recitals of the Rose Quartet, Postal Octet, Jacques Orchestra, Gellhom Trio, Zorian String Quartet, Griller Quartet, Carter String Trio - a distinguished company indeed in those early years. Out of the first Vienna Philharmonic concerts came the Barylli Quartet and the VPO Wind Ensemble who, during the following years, gave numerous recitals and concerts in London and in many provincial centres. Other chamber ensembles presented by the Society included - in roughly chronological order - the London Ensemble Singers, Harvey Philips Orchestra, London Baroque Ensemble, London Mozart Players, Virtuoso Ensemble, Wind Music Society, Eduard Melkus Ensemble, Vienna Capella Academica, Eichendorff Quintet, Pierrot Players, Cambridge University Chamber Choir, Haydn Trio, Melos Ensemble, Vienna Flute Trio, Alban Berg Quartet, Scuola di Chiesa, Murmeltcr's Conccrtodrome, Vienna Schubert Trio, Academy ofSt Martin in the Fields. The music presented, mainly British or Austrian, ranged from ancient to classical to contemporary. Favoured venues were the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall or Purcell Room, with only occasional excursions to more exotic places like the Oxford Town Hall or Holywell Rooms.

Recitals

Again, the list of early concerts shows many distinguished names - Edith Vogel, Maggie Teyte, Gerald Moore, Franz Osborn, Peter Stadlen, Peter Schidlof, Engel Lund and Ferdinand Rauter, Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten, Flora Nielsen,Joan Cross, Eugenia Zareska, Anton Dermota, Kathleen Ferrier. In later years we continued with Paul Badura-Skoda andJoerg Demus (solo and duo), Heinz Medjimorec, Thomas Hemsley and Erik Werba, John Ogden, Lutz Leskowitz and Rudi Buchbinder, Peter Hurford, Ileana Cotrubas and Margarita Lilova, Walter Krenn and Tugomic Franc, Thomas Christian and Gerhard Zeiler, Heinrich Schiffand Norman Shettler, Peter Pears and Osian Ellis.

The Society, from its earliest days, saw as one of its most significant tasks the giving and managing of London Debut recitals for promising young artists. The usual venue was the Wigmore Hall, before a paying audience, but with agents and press well represented - always in the hope of helping these young people on their way to fame. We began with the young Friedrich Gulda in 1949 and continued through the years with Grete Scherzer, Paul Badura-Skoda, Joerg Demus, Ingrid Haebler, Irmgard Seefried, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Rosemary Wright, Robert Majek, Heinz Medjimorec, Lutz Leskowitz, the Eichendorff Wind Quintet, Thomas Christian, Heinrich Schiff, the Eurasia Quartet, the Vienna Flute Trio, the Alban Berg Quartet, Roswitha Randacher, Edita Gruberova, Ernst Kovacic, the New Vienna String Trio, Rene Staar, the Flieder Trio, Florian Kitt, Thomas Riebl, Erich Binder, Stefan Vladar and Barbara Moser - this latest debut in 1991. Debut Recitals also became part of the Tauber Prize from 1975 - the winners: Robin Leggate, Claire Powell, Gabriele Fontana, John Hancorn, Anna Steiger, Simon Keenlyside and Lynton Atkinson.

A distinguished Vienna Debut was that of Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten at a Musical Soiree at the Palais Pallavicini in March 1952.