A Manns for all seasons
A drab, drizzly late-November afternoon in Sydenham, south east London. Seagulls trudge around the spreading puddles where once the stupendous Crystal Palace proudly stood… and died, in a heart-stopping, heart-breaking conflagration in November 1936. Even with the elegant stone staircases and balustrades still tracing the site’s outline – and even with the Victorian floor plan to hand – it’s hard to raise the ghost of Crystal Palace’s legendary musical hero. Over here, says the plan, is the area where August Manns drove on his musicians with unflagging energy, across more than 12,000 concerts. Twelve thousand! A dizzying stat indeed that describes Manns’s marathon stretch as the venue’s music director from 1855-1901.
Manns it was who enticed and educated a new public for classical music, his influence spreading across the UK. His concerts were a formative influence on the young Elgar, who day-tripped by train from his Worcester home to attend the maestro’s Crystal Palace ‘Saturday Concerts’, departing at the crack of dawn and
