Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall stands in the heart of west London on Wigmore Street, a quiet thoroughfare in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect T. E. Collcutt, it opened in 1901 as Bechstein Hall, built by the German piano maker C. Bechstein. The hall became famous for its fine acoustics and quickly attracted leading musicians such as Ferruccio Busoni, Eugène Ysaÿe, Artur Schnabel and Arthur Rubinstein. In 1916 it was seized as enemy property and sold at auction to Debenhams, then reopened in 1917 under its present name. Since 1966 it has been a Grade II listed building. The hall specialises in chamber music, early music, vocal recitals and song, hosting more than five hundred concerts each year. It is recognised as having one of Europe’s best acoustics for classical music and has hosted premieres by major composers including Benjamin Britten and Sergei Prokofiev. Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and Peter Grimes excerpts were first heard here. The hall also presented the British premières of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared. Inside, the rectangular hall has alabaster and marble walls, a small raised stage topped by a cupola painted by Gerald Moira and executed by Frank Lynn Jenkins. The auditorium seats 545 in stalls and a balcony, with two bars and a restaurant below. The cupola was restored in 1991–92 and remains a landmark feature. Regular performers include Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, András Schiff and the Takács Quartet. The hall also supports young artists and has premiered chamber works by Bartók, Schoenberg and Strauss.