Kingsway Hall - Events at Kingsway Hall

Events At Kingsway Hall

• August 1913 – Emmeline Pankhurst delivers speech at Women's Social and Political Union meeting condemning doctors' force feeding of women caught under the Cat and Mouse Act
• October 16, 1919 - The British Symphony Orchestra’s first concert, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 and Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 conducted by Adrian Boult
• September 15, 1926 - First recordings with Albert Coates' "The Symphony Orchestra" (this orchestra composed of London Symphony Orchestra players billed differently for contractual purposes)
• February 26, 1927 - Ampico Concert featuring Grieg Concerto roll by Marguerite Volavy (soloist) accompanied by Gatty Sellers at the organ (orchestra).
• October 28, 1928 – Debate titled "Do We Agree?" over distributism between George Bernard Shaw and G. K. Chesterton chaired by Hilaire Belloc and broadcast live by the BBC (audience exceeds hall's capacity)
• June 4, 1931 – Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and the Queen Mother), and Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth) attend recording session for Edward Elgar’s Nursery Suite, with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (also recorded at Kingsway on May 23, 1931)
• September 19, 1932 - first London Philharmonic Orchestra sessions
• April 26, 1933 – Virgil Fox's European debut before an audience of 1,100
• December 1933 – Anthony Eden speech on the League of Nations
• August 10, 1945 - first Philharmonia Orchestra sessions
• October 27, 1945 – Thomas Beecham conducts the first concert of the Philharmonia Orchestra (an all Mozart program)
• January 20, 1947 - first concert of the London Symphonic Players, Harry Blech conducting
• May 27, 1947 - first Royal Philharmonic Orchestra sessions
• November 28, 1949 – Winston Churchill delivers speech championing the European Movement
• April 16, 1951 - first London performance of the Hindemith Horn Concerto with Dennis Brain and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar
• May 23, 1951 - Leopold Stokowski's first British recording, of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, with the Philharmonia Orchestra for HMV.
• December 1–2, 1954 - Decca first experimental stereo recording of Winifred Atwell playing Grieg's Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic and Stanford Robinson. Their first commercially released stereo recording was made on December 14–15, 1955 with Clifford Curzon, piano, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult playing Franck's Symphonic Variations and Holst's Scherzo from his unfinished symphony H192.
• February 7, 1955 – EMI's first stereo recordings made; Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7, Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Nicolai Malko).
• March 21 & 23 1961 - EMI records the legendary performance of Brahms German Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as soloists.
• January 19, 1969 (sic) - a large section of the main roof collapses and steel girders fall on the seats (fortunately after Sunday services). This date is that given in Bagwell's history of the WLM published in 1987 for the centenary. Unfortunately, Bagwell's information must be incorrect and other evidence at EMI archives and in the Academy of St Martins in the Fields discography points to early September 1969 for the roof fall. Also, the LSO had sessions in the hall on January 20 and 22.
• June 24, 1980 – Celebration for the life of record producer John Culshaw with Nigel Black, Clifford Curzon, Kenneth Sillito, Neil Black, Alan Civil, Georg Solti, Humphrey Burton, Lorin Maazel, Huw Weldon, and Leontyne Price.