The classical and chamber music scene in London remains healthy, despite the total lack of publicity music receives in the media. The scene has something to cater for everybody, from free entry chamber music in historic churches to expensively priced orchestral evenings in paid prestige venues. Whatever your taste and whatever your budget, there will be something to suit if only you can find it.
The prestige music venues are known to just about everybody. The Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall is famous throughout the world for being the greatest and longest running season of orchestral music in the world, and the good news is that tickets are affordable. While you can choose to pay a higher price and sit in a premium seat, you can also choose to stand for what, at the time of writing, only amounts to £5. Well done to the organisers of the BBC Proms for making live orchestral music affordable for everybody.
The Cadogan Hall is now the home of the Chamber Proms, and hosts orchestral and chamber music events all year round. Not cheap, but certainly a luxurious venue with brilliant seeing and excellent acoustics. The other great chamber music venue in London, the Wigmore Hall, also hosts a large number of events with only a very short summer break. The tickets are priced very reasonably, and the quality is second to none.
These well known and prestigious venues are only the tip of the iceberg. St. John’s Smith Square is another excellent music venue right in the heart of London, only a very short walk from Westminster station. Tickets are usually available here, although I did witness one sell-out on the weekend of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Even the upstairs seating with the restricted view was all taken.
The historic church of St James in Piccadilly provides free and paid music events right in the very heart of London’s West End, and yet it remains an undiscovered jewel. If you are on a low budget, check out the free chamber music at lunchtime. A retiring collection donation will get you a quality music event in an imposing and inspiring venue
St-Martin-In-The-Fields, opposite Trafalgar Square, hosts regular live music in the evenings. This is especially handy on Saturdays in the summer when the bands in St James’s Park finish at 6:15pm. A short walk takes you from one to the other, and the entertainment continues.
Outside of London, classical and chamber music is often ignored. Nevertheless, there are some venues and some seasons which are very much worthy of inclusion, and which are worth a journey to support. Symphony Hall in Birmingham is a venue which has matinee performances of orchestral music, making it ideal for a day out. It is very close to New Street station.
The two most highly recommended seasons outside the major cities are the one run by Adrian Boynton at the Cornerstone Church in Milton Keynes, and the one run by Tim Campain at the United Reformed Church in Coventry. The Milton Keynes season features both orchestral and chamber music, and is easy to reach from Euston. Virgin trains now only take just over half an hour to get to MK station.
The Coventry season is also very easy to get to, as it is close to Coventry station which is easy to reach from Euston. It features free entry chamber music on alternate Tuesday lunchtimes, and is the best run and best organised music season I have found anywhere.
Please see the individual pages for further details.