April 1892: Glasgow Glee and Catch Club – Private Concert in the Grand Hotel

An article on page six of The Glasgow Herald, on Wednesday the 13th of April, 1892, reads:

 

“GLASGOW GLEE AND CATCH CLUB. – The members of the Glasgow Glee and Catch Club

gave a private concert last evening in the Grand Hotel. Invitations were confined to friends.

As the large hall of the hotel was crowded, the club would seem to have a large circle of

acquaintances. In any case, those who were of the privileged number may have regretted that

their pleasure was not shared by a still larger audience. The concerts of the club are always

enjoyable; that of last evening was quite as fine as any that have gone before. The personnel

of the society undergoes little change from year to year, and the balance of voices is well

preserved. The gentlemen, too, are skilled musicians, who know that good singing does not

altogether, or even mainly, depend on the quality of the voice, and that without intelligence,

refinement, and feeling the efforts of the vocalist are in vain. Of management of the voice and

purity of style we had last night an admirable example by the gentleman who sang Henry

Smart’s ‘Vineta.’ His phrasing was very fine, and his reserve was exceptionally judicious. The

programme, however, was made up for the most part of the glees which never grow old. These

were rendered by the members of the club with thorough appreciation of both sentiment and

harmonised melody. Only to mention two items, John Parry’s glee, ‘In a Cell,’ was beautifully

coloured, and William Shore’s lovely arrangement for four voices of Burns’s love song, ‘Of a’ the

airts, ‘was rendered with such delicacy and refined shading that the audience insisted on its

repetition. Mr Allan Young was conductor.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, November 2022.