In May 1901, Wigmore Hall’s inaugural concert began, of course, with God Save the King – the words sounding novel to an audience who, until a few months earlier, had been singing it for Queen Victoria. The programme continued with a starry lineup including the composer and piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni performing Beethoven and the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe playing unaccompanied Bach. A partial recreation of that evening kicked off the hall’s fortnight of celebrations of its 125th birthday, and once the national anthem was out of the way - dispatched from the platform by soprano Louise Alder and pianist Joseph Middleton – it felt less like a historical exercise than a celebration of what this venue has always been good at.
The concert was billed as a gala but was less formal, shorter and tighter than that might have suggested, partly thanks to being broadcast live: no indulgent speeches, just short links from Radio 3’s Ian Skelly filling us in on the venue’s history. The hall was originally built in 1901 by Bechstein, the piano manufacturer, whose showrooms were next door on Wigmore Street, and was intended as a place where audiences could hear the finest pianists of the day showcasing the company’s instruments.
Anti-German regulations during the first world war meant that the hall was sold to the Debenhams group in 1916, and what had been Bechstein Hall became, in 1917, Wigmore Hall; for a time German song was staunchly performed in English translation.
Since then that time the venue has proved remarkably resilient, continuing to put on concerts through the bleakest days of the second world war, and occasionally catching the spirit of the 1960s - David Bowie performed here twice in his early career, once wearing a spacesuit - and, so far, riding out the more recent economic challenges facing all UK arts venues. All the while the Wigmore has continued to offer a London home to everyone who is anyone in the world of solo recitals, chamber music and song.
Filling Busoni’s role first at Monday’s gala was Thomas Adès, who played first a new piano version of his 2023 guitar piece Vesper (for Henry Purcell), a mesmerising and characteristically polished miniature twisting, distorting and reflecting Purcell’s own Evening Hymn as if in a very small hall of mirrors.
Then, as in 1901, there was also Beethoven’s Op 109 piano sonata, in E major: Adès put an individual stamp on this, strong on drama if lacking a little in melodic definition, loud chords pouncing on sweet pianissimos. Alder and Middleton returned for three Schubert songs, ending with Erlkönig, which came across almost as a mini-opera, with Alder turning up the tension throughout and Middleton making something electric of the frantically repeating notes in the piano part.
Filling Ysaÿe’s shoes was Alina Ibragimova, who played the second half of Bach’s first Partita for solo violin, in B minor, with such freshness, precision and elegance that it seemed a shame we didn’t get more. She was joined by the pianist Cédric Tiberghien for Beethoven’s Romance in G – a moment of relative calm for Tiberghien between the two stormy parts of Brahms’s lavishly virtuosic Paganini Variations, which framed the second half of the concert. Not many pianists take on this work, which is more self-consciously virtuosic than the Brahms we know and love, but Tiberghien brought some old-school Busoni-style dazzle to his performance, his poise and control making the work’s inclusion here feel properly celebratory.
• The Wigmore Hall’s 125 festival continues until 7 June. All concerts are being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and then available on BBC Sounds for 30 days.
