| Main Performers | Mr W T Best,
Dr Stainer - organ |
| Orchestra or Band | Orchestra,
Band (Herr Carl Deichmann) |
| Set List | 12:00 Organ Recital (Mr Best or Dr Stainer)
16:00 Orchestral and / or Vocal Concert |
| Performance Notes | The Exhibition of 1873 was the third of a series of four public exhibitions which were held annually at South Kensington from 1871-1874. The Exhibition was divided into 26 departments housed in the buildings surrounding the South Kensington Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Gardens (to the south of the Royal Albert Hall). The Exhibition buildings consisted of two long basement galleries on the east and west of the gardens, two shorter basement galleries on the north and south, which completed the enclosure, and corresponding galleries above each of these, and those at the north consisting of the conservatory and entrance to the Royal Albert Hall. The greater part of the basement at the southern end was occupied by the dining and refreshment department, which was under the direction of caterers, Messrs. Spiers and Pond as well as exhibits of stoves, kitcheners, apparatus for cooking, as well as a large exhibition of carriages and vehicles. The southeast end was occupied by the Indian Court, and on the south-west by the departments devoted to terracotta.
Examples of silk manufactures and of fabrics in silk and velvet, manufactures in steel, surgical instruments and appliances, vessels and implements used in drinking, and various forms of tobacco and pipes used for smoking were among the chief objects represented at the Exhibition. A large section was also occupied with food products, agricultural substances, and the science and practice of cookery, upon which experimental lectures were given daily by Mr. Buckmaster in the experimental cookery department situated on the eastern side.
The Exhibition also contained a French court, Queensland annexe, machinery annexe, and Colonial court. Collections of pictures by Philip and Creswick and other paintings were displayed alongside tapestries, carpets, embroideries, shawls, lace, mosaics, enamels etc and other art works. In the Western courts displays were housed about the processes in the manufacture of silk and food. The quadrants near the Royal Albert Hall were occupied with food products such as biscuits, soda-water making, the progress of manufacturing macaroni, and various kinds of confectionery.
The Gallery at the top of the auditorium inside the Royal Albert Hall was used to exhibit photographs, engravings, chromo-lithographs, architectural designs, lace, and needlework. Visitors to the Exhibition could take refreshment in a tea-room which Messrs. Spiers and Pond had established in the principal corridor of the Hall.
Military band concerts were discontinued at this Exhibition having been hosted at the 1871 and 1872 Exhibitions. However, organ recitals were given daily at noon in the Royal Albert Hall by Mr Best or Dr Stainer, and orchestral and vocal concerts, with a band of fifty performers, led by Herr Carl Deichmann and conducted by Mr Joseph Barnby, every afternoon at 16:00. In total there were 172 concerts in the Royal Albert Hall. Each programme consisted of a symphony or concerto, two overtures and a selection of vocal music; by composers such as Bach or Schumann and then living composers such as Brahms, Gadem Liszt or Wagner. Prominence was given to English composers, who were invited to submit their works for performance, as well as English vocalists and instrumentalists who could compete to perform. Each programme contained historical and analytical details of the works to be performed, accompanied by illustrations in music type, by Mr Joseph Bennett.
(Source: 'The Monthly Musical Record ' 1 May 1873).
Approxiamately 500,033 visitors attended the exhibition and 35 nations and colonies were represented. |