3-052-700 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Ballad Concert, 1880. 'These concerts, under the able and spirited direction of Mr. John Boosey, have long since taken a fixed place among the most successful of London musical performances. A good ballad or song, whether the sentiment be domestic or heroic, appeals to numerous and wide-spread human sympathies that may fail to respond to music of a more recondite kind. Hence pieces of the class referred to, when interpreted by singers of such excellence as those associated with these concerts, frequently produce a deeper and more lasting impression than sometimes results from compositions of grander design realised by more elaborate means. For fourteen seasons these concerts have now run a successful course, and with this week an extra series of Saturday afternoon performances comes to a close. All the most eminent English singers of the period have been heard, and many excellent young vocalists have obtained their earliest success, and have begun a career of prosperity at the London Ballad Concerts. The ingenuous and modest debutante, whose first public appearance is shown in our Illustration, will have the best wishes of our readers for her future career as a vocalist'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.