Lunchtime chamber music in London
Where to listen to short chamber concerts every working day of the week
In 40 years of travelling I have been to most of the big cities around the world, and have my own view of their relative merits. All great cities provide the complete range of artistic events, but New York I think is the world capital for jazz and modern dance while London is unmatched for chamber music, and theatre. Wiith Dance Umbrella in Autumn, and Sadlers Wells in general through the year, it’s only jazz that’s poorly represented here from the point of view of my own interests. The only way to get it all is to live in both cities, and I did that for 10 years. Great fun though it was, 10 years was enough.
Recently though I have been discovering just how rich London is for chamber music. I really like listening to this at lunchtime – the concerts are a reasonable length, can be tied in with lunch (!), and fit into the day better than having to schlep out and back in the evening.
For a lot of this year and last, I have been attending concerts at St Martin in the Fields. it’s an iconic and lovely place, but recently has become very very popular, with the result that it’s necessary to arrive at least 30 minutes before to secure a reasonable seat. Looking around a bit, I have now found that it’s possible to go to lunchtime chamber concerts every day of the week except Saturday in London, at least at the time of writing. Most these are in churches, many of which were designed by Wren. BTW, for churches the Concertcushion is highly recommended, while Concertbev is frowned upon.
For my information, and possibly yours, I list the potential locations and days of the week, with links to their music programmes on the web.
Monday: Wigmore Hall, St Martin in the Fields, St James Picadilly
Tuesday: St Martin in the Fields
Wednesday: St Dunstan-in-the-West, St James Picadilly
Thursday: St Mary le Bow
Friday: St Martin in the Fields, St James Picadilly
Sunday: Wigmore Hall
In a subsequent post I’ll do a little write-up on each of these venues with my view of their particular merits.
