Imagine visiting the V&A and stumbling across a free concert of early music, performed on centuries-old instruments, inside an 18th century music room. This was the vision of an experimental concert series launched at the museum in 1973 where leading figures of the early music revival, including Trevor Pinnock, Colin Tilney and Jill Severs, performed on restored instruments from the V&A collections.
Behind the concerts was Peter Thornton, Keeper of Furniture and Woodwork at the V&A from 1966 until 1984, and Maurice Cochrane, harpsichordist and early keyboards technician. Their aim was to “bring these marvellous instruments to life for a brief moment” and to “discover what kind of demand there is likely to be for such activities” (archive ref. MA/120/6/3).
The V&A was an ideal venue for concerts of early music. The museum could offer a large collection of antique musical instruments from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Many of them were ready for use in concerts, having been restored to playing condition during the 1960s. Likewise, the V&A boasted many distinctive spaces for concerts. Both the grand Raphael Cartoon Gallery and the quadrangle had previously hosted Sunday evening concerts of chamber music from 1950 to 1971.
Eight free lunchtime recitals featuring early instruments took place from May to June 1973. The musicians performed inside the Norfolk House Music Room. This space would once have hosted musical performances at Norfolk House, the mid-18th century stately home in London that was demolished in 1938. Today, the Music Room is found in the V&A’s British Galleries, in Room 52. It is an incredible space to step into.
The concerts were free and unticketed, allowing visitors to discover the performances by chance and drop in. With no formal seating, the audience would stand or use portable gallery chairs, if needed. This was a real departure from the earlier, more traditional Sunday evening concerts.
The extraordinary selection of instruments included Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal, a spinet made in Venice in 1570 which almost certainly belonged to Elizabeth I. There was the Taskin harpsichord, made in 1786, a rare Parisian instrument fitted with unusually narrow keys. Both can be seen today in the Europe 1600-1815 gallery, Room 1. Also included was the Baffo harpsichord, another Venetian instrument made in 1574 by Giovanni Baffo, and a Baroque flute made of ebony inlaid with silver wire, made in London around 1710. The list goes on.
Here is a brief recording of the Baffo harpsichord – it’s amazing to hear its unique sound, even if it isn’t quite the same as a live performance in the galleries!
Many of the performers and audience members wrote to the V&A after attending the concerts. Their thoughts and feelings are preserved in the archival file MA/120/6/3 which documents the planning of the concerts.
After performing on the Queen Elizabeth Virginal, Jill Severs wrote that, “there was a kind of magic in sitting at the keyboard with the Royal Arms on one side and the falcon device on the other and touching the beautiful inlaid keys and hearing those warm and lively sounds which began life so long ago”.
Trevor Pinnock noted that, “the instruments seem to delight in their emancipation and most certainly respond well to notions that they should be heard as well as seen!”
An audience member echoes this feeling, describing how the recitals “have begun to bring some of the objects in the Museum back to life – not only the instruments but also the music room of Norfolk House which in a way relives when decorated with flowers and filled with music lovers”. One member of the public complained that the traffic noise from Cromwell Road at times “drowned” the music and made it “impossible to hear the announcements”. Further disruptions came from “several members of V&A staff talking quite loudly, not warders may I add”.
The success of this experiment led to a further series of lunchtime concerts featuring V&A instruments in 1974. This time the venue was the Tapestry Gallery, where listeners were surrounded by seven large 18th-century tapestries themed on The Art of War. The concerts featured Trevor Pinnock’s ensemble The English Concert, amongst others.
Concerts on period instruments continued to take place at the V&A throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s. However, the concert files reveal behind-the-scenes anxiety about the risk of damage to the instruments. In a 1975 letter to Maurice Cochrane, Peter Thornton writes, “I have all along been vexed about the propriety of playing our ancient and delicate instruments… we must at each step consider whether the cause is truly being served by playing a particular instrument at a given time” (ref. MA/120/1/4).
Particularly concerning was the need for large keyboard instruments to be moved from one part of the museum to another, often up and down the Victorian staircases. Instruments need time to acclimatise to new environments, which was sometimes in conflict with last-minute decisions by ensembles and concert agents.
There was a slow shift towards a more cautious approach. In a March 1977 letter to Christopher Hogwood, Thornton writes that harpsichord restorer Derek Adlam was “beginning to recommend that we ought not to play the Queen Elizabeth’s Virginals at all”. He continues, “It may be that it is right that we should literally just tinkle on them once more in this Jubilee Year during the course of a concert just to show that we have them and that they make a sound; but after that I think I will put them away and not allow them out again unless there are very compelling reasons for doing so” (ref. MA/120/1/4).
Today, the V&A’s instruments no longer appear in concerts, but many of them are on display at V&A South Kensington and V&A Storehouse in Hackney Wick, London. Some of the instruments were recorded in past decades. Recordings are listed in the ‘Bibliographic References’ section of individual instrument catalogue records on Explore the Collections.
Further reading at the V&A
Concert policy files, MA/120, V&A Archive.
To make an appointment to view archive items, please get in touch with the V&A Archive team using our enquiry form.
Nicholas Smith, Music for a While: Benjamin Britten at the V&A, V&A Blog, Tales from the Archives, 2013.
Nicholas Smith, The Early Music Movement and the V&A, V&A Blog, Tales from the Archives, 2015.
The following items are available to view in the National Art Library at the V&A – to request items, create an NAL account.
Anthony Baines, Howard Schott et al., Catalogue of musical instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A Publications, 1998.
Peter Thornton, Musical instruments as works of art, H.M.S.O, 1968.
Michael I Wilson, Musical instruments: a list of books and articles in the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, compiled by M.I. Wilson.
