The Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society is over 100 years old, and was established in 1915 by the Committee for Music in Wartime as a way of engaging musicians whose livelihoods had suffered during war-time conditions. The Society aimed to boost morale in local military hospitals by using them as concert venues “for the convenience of business people, soldiers and visitors to the city.” The first concert took place on the 9th November 1915 at Houldsworth Hall (now Church House, 90 Deansgate).

The concerts proved so successful that they continued after the war and in 1922 the Tuesday Mid-day Concerts Society was founded. From this date concerts were programmed in order to “provide music of a very high standard at a low admission price to enable any music lover to attend” and to “foster the best young musicians” by providing a performance platform, an audience and marketing exposure.

Programme:

Frederic Chopin  Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22

Francois Couperin:

"Les Ombres Errantes"

"Tricoteuses"

"Le Bandoline"

"Le Tic-toc-Choc ou les Maillotins"

Balys Dvarionas:

"First snowflakes"

"Birds in the winter"

Impromtu in E flat minor

Waltz in G minor

"Down the hill in a sled"

Franz Liszt – Vladimir Horowitz

Hungarian rhapsody no 2