28th Season of the Saturday Evening Concerts, September 1881, and the first Glasgow performance of Miss Agnes Ross, of Campsie

From page six of The Glasgow Herald, on Friday the 9th of September 1881:

 

“THE SATURDAY EVENING CONCERTS.- The 28th season of the Saturday Evening Concerts begins to-morrow night. As usual the entertainment will be under the immediate patronage of the Lord Provost and the Magistrates of the city, with whom is associated on the present occasion the Hon. Hanbury Lennox of Lennox Castle, Campsie. A very attractive programme has been arranged for the opening night, and among the artists engaged are several who are new to a Glasgow audience. Prominent among them is Miss Agnes Ross, a young lady belonging to Campsie, who has achieved for herself a good position in London.”

 

An advertisement of the front page of the same edition provides the names of the performers, including Mr. F. W. Bridgman, pianist, and Mr. H. A. Lambeth, organist, and the evening’s programme. A notice review of the 10th of September concert can be found on page four of the Herald, on Monday the 12th:

 

“CITY HALL SATURDAY EVENING CONCERTS.- The twenty-eighth season of these concerts was entered upon on Saturday night, under most auspicious circumstances. The hall was crowded early, and when the concert began there was not even standing room to be had. It was a magnificent audience, and afforded the directors of the Abstainers’ Union gratifying proof of the popularity with which they have succeeded in investing their entertainments. The pleasant hold the concerts have on the public mind was made all the clearer by the fact that the programme contained no features of unusual attraction. The interest of the evening centred for the most part in Miss Agnes Ross, a lady who belongs to Campsie, and has of late, report says, been appearing with great success in London. Miss Ross had a cordial reception, and her singing fully sustained the golden opinions which had preceded her. Her first song was scarcely so much appreciated as it deserved, but when later on she sang “Caller Herrin’,” with splendid force and expression, the enthusiasm was great and broke into a general cheer. Miss Ross has a fresh, clear voice, which she manages well, and it is evident also that she has fine powers of dramatic expression. Miss Agnes Hudson, Miss Kate Baxter, Mr Faulkner Leigh, and Mr Barrington Foote were the other vocalists. Herr Von Arnhem also contributed to the entertainment two violin solos. The concert was as usual under the patronage of the Magistrates and members of the Town Council, and a number of these gentlemen were present. In the course of the evening Mr John Lindsay, chairman of the directors of the Union, made some remarks expressing the gratification of the directors at the large measure of public support and approval which the concerts had received in the past, and the assurance that in the present season nothing would be wanting on the part of the directors to make them as popular as they had always been. Bailie Farquhar said he had been asked by the Lord Provost to say that the Magistrates continued to take a warm interest in the success of the Saturday Evening Concerts. There was no doubt that they had already accomplished a great amount of good, not only in elevating the tastes of the people, but in providing opportunities for them to spend a pleasant evening, free from temptation, listening to high-class music. He earnestly hoped that the concerts would continue to be as successful as they had been in the past.”