About PLG – Track Record
Given the offer of the free use of Park Lane House, 45 Park Lane, London W1, the PLG was founded in 1956 in order to:
- Provide a prominent platform for outstanding young musicians
- Organise notable and imaginative musical occasions
- Celebrate the lives and work of great musicians
Many concerts, concert series, opera productions (often first UK performances), masterclasses, talks, workshops and pilot tours have been organised, as well as festival performances for PLG Young Artists. The information below shows how the PLG’s work has flourished for 62 consecutive seasons.
The PLG has never had any capital resources, so Funding (see below) has always had to be created and sought from a great variety of sources.
Rigorous young artists’ auditions have been held each Spring. As a result, well over 1,600 highly talented young artists have been presented in the New Year Series and other Park Lane Group performances and opera productions, all with excellent results. A small and inevitably limited choice:
Thomas Adès Tim Hugh John McCabe
John Ogdon Dame Josephine Barstow Arditti String Quartet
Rebecca Gilliver Anthony Rolfe Johnson Imogen Cooper
Sir Thomas Allen Stephanie Gonley Elizabeth Atherton
William Howard Clare Hammond Steven Isserlis
Anthony Marwood Dame Gwyneth Jones Alison Balsom
Paul Barritt Doric String Quartet Mary King
Coull String Quartet David Lloyd-Jones Stephen Kovacevich
Emily Beynon Tamsin Waley-Cohen Harriet Mackenzie
Simon Lepper Jonathan Kelly Medici String Quartet
Belcea String Quartet Daniel Pailthorpe Nicholas Cleobury
Nicolas Hodges Moray Welsh Clio Gould
Nash Ensemble John Wallace Alissa Firsova
Sioned Williams Paul Watkins Colin Graham
Barry Wordsworth Catherine Wyn-Rogers Gildas String Quartet
David Owen Norris Tippett String Quartet Roger Vignoles
Lawrence Power Lyn Fletcher Sarah Walker
Rachel Bellinger Meriel Dickinson Richard Hosford
David Campbell Richard Lester O Duo
Claire Booth Robert Carsen Noelle Barket
Philippa Davies Jane Manning Anthony Pay
Michael Cox Bella Tromba Malcolm Martineau
James Crabb Ian Mitchell Andrew Ball
Maxwell String Quartet Mark van de Wiel Elizabeth Layton
Rachel Gough Sarah Leonard Alan Hacker
Barnaby Robson Susan Tomes Huw Watkins
Piatti String Quartet David Wilson-Johnson Ian Hardwick
John Bradbury Janet Kelly John Harle
The success of these and many other fine artists, a very large number of who hold principal positions in many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles as well as in some of the great orchestras abroad (eg Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw), plus the PLG’s adventurous and imaginative programming, as well as perceptive reviewing from the national and musical press, has established the PLG as a leading platform for young performers of outstanding talent.
PLG Wigmore Hall Young Artists Concerts
have been a vital part of PLG seasons since 1981, presenting PLG Young Artists with further opportunities in one of the world’s great concert halls.
PLG Concerts in other venues also play a vital role in PLG seasons
An average of 25 PLG Lunchtime Concerts happen in three Central London churches:
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square
St James’s, Piccadilly
St Margaret’s Westminster, next to Westminster Abbey
Also
Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand
Kings Place, York Way, N1, usually in association with the London Chamber Music Society
22 Mansfield Street, W1
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square
St John’s Smith Square
In earlier seasons
The Great Drawing Room of 4 St James’s Square, SW1
The Rafael Cartoon Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum
The London Planetarium
PLG Anniversary Series
PLG Young Artists have frequently taken part in the continuing PLG Anniversary Series, which pays to tribute to distinguished artists and composers.
The PLG Anniversary Series began in 1962 with a 75th Birthday Concert for Dame Edith Sitwell. This was given in the sold-out Royal Festival Hall with Sir William Walton conducting, Sir Peter Pears singing, and Stephen Kovacevich (then Bishop) replacing the unwell Benjamin Britten. Since then, there have been many notable celebratory events, held in the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Fishmongers’ Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Princess Alexandra Hall of the Royal Over-Seas League, Cadogan Square Gardens SW3, 49 Queen’s Gate Terrace SW7 and 22 Mansfield Street W1.
101st Birthday
Hugues Cuenod
100
Sidonie Goossens in her presence , William Alwyn, Fred Astaire, Samuel Barber, Sir Lennox Berkeley, Irving Berlin, Hector Berlioz, Lord Berners, Eubie Blake, Frank Bridge, TS Eliot, Charles Ives, Charles Koechlin, Constant Lambert, Carl Nielsen, Alan Rawsthorne, Albert Roussel, Adolphe Sax, Jean Sibelius , Sir Michael Tippett
95
Dame Ninette de Valois, Henri Dutilleux
90
Henri Dutilleux, Sir Michael Tippett
85
Alban Berg
80
Larry Adler, Peter Dickinson,Sir John Manduell
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Hugh Wood
75
Sir Lennox Berkeley, Kenneth Leighton, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, Priaulx Rainier, Dame Edith Sitwell, Jon Vickers, Sir William Walton
70
John Amis, Roberto Gerhard, Elisabeth Lutyens
Anthony Payne, Stan Tracey, Dame Joan Sutherland
65
Sir Malcolm Arnold, John Wallace
60
Peter Dickinson, Alan Hacker, Nicola LeFanu
50
John Ogdon, RVW Trust, Giles Swayne
Memorial Concerts
Sir Lennox Berkeley
Roberto Gerhard
John McCabe
Lord Menuhin
Sir Andrezj Panufnik
Links with Foreign Embassies and Institutes
The PLG has a long history of organising events in conjunction with the American Embassy, Canadian High Commission, French Embassy, Goethe Institut, Italian Institute. These have led to important performances, for example, the Charles Ives Centenary (six concerts), the Canadian Music Week, the Orchestre de Bretagne regional tour, Boulez in Birmingham, and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Karlheinz Stockhausen and two performances of the complete Instrumental Sequenzas of Luciano Berio, the second in the presence of the composer.
PLG Outside London
There have been close relationships with organisations outside London which have resulted in PLG Young Artists performing in a number of festivals and music organisations. Among these have been the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (a special day Boulez in Birmingham, in the presence of the composer), Cheltenham Festival, Sounds New Festival Canterbury, Cheltenham Ladies’ College and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Another major development recently was the Future Classics tour presented by Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust and the PLG with concerts in Harrogate, Edinburgh, Bristol, Guildford and ending in Wigmore Hall, the last broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
The organising of performances outside London is a major area and it is intended to add a wide range of festivals and schools.
Park Lane Opera
During the period to 1981 (when opera funding provided for PLG ended), Park Lane Opera organised and presented many opera performances, a large proportion in the Camden Festival, several being first productions in the UK*, including:
Bizet: Doctor Miracle* (in Park Lane House)
Berlioz: Beatrice and Benedict
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia (concert performance)
Delius: Fennimore and Gerda (two productions)
Delius: Margot la Rouge*
Haydn: La fedeltà premiata
Hindemith: Hin und Zurück
Lecoq: Doctor Miracle*
Maconchy: The Sofa*
Menotti: The Old Maid and the Thief (concert performance.)
Menotti: Maria Golovin* (production directed by Gian Carlo Menotti)
Milhaud: Le pauvre matelôt* (in Park Lane House)
Mozart: La finta giardiniera*
Mozart: La finta semplice*
Thea Musgrave: The Abbot of Drimock* (concert perf.) (World Premiere) (Park Lane House)
Poulenc: La Voix Humaine
Poulenc: Les mamélles de Tirésias
Rimsky-Korsakov: Mozart and Salieri
Schubert: Fidelio (concert performance)
Smetana: The Secret*
Stravinsky: Mavra
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta*
Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea