Sorabji Resource Site: Concert Venues

Concert Venues

This page lists the concert venues where Sorabji and others gave first performances between 1920 and 1936 as well as those where some notable later performances took place. Data on the halls are given only for those used during Sorabji’s years of public life. The list will be useful as a guide for a Sorabji pilgrimage, in which case the Google Maps links will prove useful.

For details about the early performances of Sorabji’s music, see another page.

Years	Venue	Comments
1919	“Holford House”, West Wing, Regent’s Park, London NW1 [Google Maps] “Holford House” was built in 1832-33 by Decimus Burton (1800-1881) for the wine merchant James Holford. It was located on the Outer Circle, in the north-western section of Regent’s Park, between Avenue Road and the east edge of the London Zoo. It was severely damaged by a bomb in 1944 and demolished in 1948. For photographs of the house and of the music room, see Felix Cherniavsky, The Salome Dancer: The Life and Times of Maud Allan (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991), between pp. 128-29.	Sorabji played Sonata no. 1 for Piano (1919; 42 pp.) for Ferruccio Busoni at the home of the dancer Maud Allen (1873-1956).
1920	Mortimer Hall, 93 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7SS [Google Maps] Mortimer Hall no longer exists. It was located near Queen’s Hall, east of Regent Street, halfway between Oxford Circus and the Broadcasting House.	Sorabji gave the first performance of Sonata no. 1 for Piano (1919; 42 pp.) on 2 November 1920 as part of the Second Sackbut concert.
1921	Société des Agriculteurs de France, 8 rue d’Athènes, Paris 75009 [Google Maps]	Sorabji gave the first performance of Trois poèmes pour chant et piano (1918, 1919; 9 pp.) with Marthe Martine on 2 June 1921 for a concert of the Société musicale indépendante.
1922	Musikverein, Kammersaal, Bösendorferstraße 12, A- 1010 Wien [Google Maps]	Sorabji played Sonata no. 1 for Piano (1919; 42 pp.) and Sonata seconda for Piano (1920; 49 pp.) on 13 January 1922.
1924	Contemporary Music Centre, London; concert held at the Art Workers’ Guild Hall, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR [Google Maps]. The building, which is located south-east of Bloomsbury Square, is still the home of the Art Workers Guild.	Sorabji played Sonata seconda for Piano (1920; 49 pp.) on 13 May 1924.
1927	Aeolian Hall, 135-137 New Bond Street, London W1S 2TQ [Google Maps] Aeolian Hall is now called Renoir House and houses antiques shops.	Harold Rutland played the 1926 version of Fragment Written for Harold Rutland (1926, 1928, 1937; 2 pp.) on 12 October 1927.
1928, 1930	Westminster Congregational Church (now Westminster Chapel), Buckingham Gate, London SW1 6BS [Google Maps]	E. Emlyn Davies played the first movement of Symphony [no. 1] for Organ (1924; 81 pp.) on 17 May 1928. Sorabji played Nocturne, “Jāmī” (1928; 28 pp.) on 16 January 1930.
1930	British Broadcasting Corporation, London Regional (842 kc’s, 356.3 m.) The session probably took place in the Savoy Hill headquarters, located off the Strand in Central London [Google Maps], where the BBC operated between 1923 and 1932, when it moved to Broadcasting House on Portland Place, London W1A 1AA [Google Maps].	Sorabji played Le jardin parfumé: Poem for Piano Solo (1923; 16 pp.) on 22 April 1930, between 9.25 and 9.40 p.m.
1930, 1931, 1936	Stevenson Hall, housed in what, in the 1990s, was the Music Room of The Town House Hotel, West George Street, Glasgow G2 1NG (Nelson Mandela Place, in front of the Church of Scotland, St George’s-Tron Parish Church) [Google Maps] Stevenson Hall was named after Sir Daniel Stevenson (1853-1944), a ship builder and benefactor of the Scottish National Academy of Music. For a photograph, see F. H. Bisset, “The Scottish National Academy of Music”, The Musical Times 71, no. 1048 (1 June 1930): 497-501; 499 [JSTOR].	Sorabji played Sonata IV for Piano (1928-29; 111 pp.) on 1 April 1930; Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.) on 1 December 1930; Nocturne, “Jāmī” (1928; 28 pp.) on 29 April 1931; and Toccata seconda per pianoforte (1933-34; 111 pp.) on 16 December 1936.
1936	Cowdray Hall, 1a Henrietta Place, Cavendish Square, London W1M 9AE [Google Maps] (not to be confused with Cowdray Hall in Aberdeen) The entrance to Cowdray Hall is now the goods entrance of the Royal College of Nursing, whose main entrance is at 20 Cavendish Square, not far from Wigmore Hall. The building was once the home of the statesman Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1852-1928).	John Tobin played Pars prima from Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.) on 10 March 1936.
1966, 1977	Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019-3210 [Google Maps]	John Gates gave an unauthorized performance of Fantaisie espagnole (1919; 23 pp.) on 20 October 1966. Michael Habermann gave his first authorized Sorabji recital on 22 May 1977.
1976	Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP [Google Maps]	Yonty Solomon gave the first of a series of authorized Sorabji recitals on 7 December 1976.
1982	Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Centrale Bibliotheek Oudegracht 167, 3511 Utrecht [Google Maps]	Geoffrey Douglas Madge gave the first modern complete performance of Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.) on 11 June 1982.
1998, 2002, 2004	Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center, Goodman House, 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023 [Google Maps]	Christopher Berg and an assembled string quartet gave the first performance of Quintet no. 1 for Piano and Quartet of Stringed Instruments (1919-20; 72 pp.), and Tellef Johnson gave the first modern performance of Sonata seconda for Piano (1920; 49 pp.) on 6 December 1998. Elizabeth Farnum and Margaret Kampmeier gave a recital featuring several performances of songs by Sorabji on 14 November 2002. Donna Amato gave the first complete performance of Symphonia brevis for Piano (1973; 120 pp.) on 17 June 2004. Jonathan Powell gave the first American performance of Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.) since 1984 on 20 June 2004.
2008	Glasgow University Chapel, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ [Google Maps]	Kevin Bowyer gave the second performance of the first movement of Second Symphony for Organ (1929-32; 350 pp.) on 3 February 2008. Bowyer gave the first complete performance of Second Symphony for Organ (1929-32; 350 pp.) on 6 June 2010. Jonathan Powell gave the first performance of Sequentia cyclica super “Dies irae” ex Missa pro defunctis (1948-49; 335 pp.) on 18 June 2010.