Tonight 179 years ago an amazing concert took place in the Ballroom of The Lion.
The famous Signor Niccolo Paganini, pictured below, gave a concert in the balcony at the Shrewsbury hotel on August 15, 1833, on his way from Italy to St Petersburg in Russia.
Visitors can still see today this Assembly Room, or Ballroom, which has changed little since it was built in 1777.
They can look at the same delicate colouring on the walls and the emblematic figures of Music and Dancing painted on the door panels, the two music galleries, the chandeliers and the moulded plaster decorations in the Robert Adam style.
They can imagine what it must have been like when the famous Signor Niccolo Paganini gave a concert as advertised in the August 9, 1833, edition of the Shrewsbury Chronicle.
It said: Under distinguished patronage, Signor Paganini respectfully announces to the Nobility and Gentry of Shrewsbury that he will give a Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concert at the Lion Ballroom on Thursday evening, August the 15th being positively the only time he can possibly have the honour of appearing before them previous to his departure for the Court of St Petersburg on which occasion he has engaged those highly celebrated Vocalists, Miss Wells and Miss Watson, likewise Mr Watson, composer to the Theatres Royal, English Opera House and Covent Gardens, and member of the Royal Academy of Music who will preside at the Piano Forte.
Tickets 2/6d each (12.5p today) may be had at Mr Eddoes, Corn Market, Shrewsbury. The concert will commence precisely at 8 o’ clock.
As can be seen from the advertisement they preferred long sentences in the first part of the 19th century.
To get Niccolo Paganini, a 19th century equivalent to a rock star today, must have been an incredible achievement for Shrewsbury.
The musician, born in Genoa, Italy, on October 27, 1782, had dramatically changed the writing of violin music, astounding audiences with techniques that included harmonies and near impossible fingerings and bowings.
His Caprice No. 24 in A Minor, Op. 1, is among his best compositions, a work that has inspired many top composers.
As a former Editor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle I eagerly turned to the August 16, 1833, edition of the paper to see how the equivalent to the then arts critic treated this amazing concert coup for the town.
The first time I looked through the paper I missed it. But on the second time of searching I found what I thought was the beginning of the review at the bottom of page three.
Without a headline it said: “Paganini Concert at the Lion Rooms, last night, was crowded, not only by the first families in the county, but by many from Montgomeryshire and other parts of the Principality.”
I immediately scanned up to the top of the page for the continuation of the story. But there was nothing.
I was speechless, but I wouldn’t have been if I had been the paper’s editor in 1833 when the reporter arrived in the office the next morning after obviously burning the midnight oil to produce that paragraph.
Incidentally, the Shrewsbury Summer Season re-enacted the Paganini concert on Friday, August 15, 2008, at The Lion to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the event.
Organised by Maggie Love, then the Arts Development Officer at Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, the concert attracted a sell-out audience at the hotel as violin virtuoso Madeleine Easton, helped by musicians Claire Surman and Gary Cooper, played the exact violin pieces performed by Paganini in 1833.
Visitors to the hotel today can see the original programme, pictured below by Richard Bishop, on display in the reception.
If you would like to learn more about this fascinating hotel signed copies of the book are available for £6.50 including postage in the UK and £8 anywhere in the world by emailing John@jbutterworth.plus.com
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