Albert Hall 'Secret' History Tour...Czech It Out!

The Royal Albert Hall ('RAH'), probably the world’s most famous stage that opened in 1871 under the vision of Prince Albert, earlier this year launched another act as part of its ‘off-stage’ line up - the Secret History Tour. The tour, which takes visitors behind the scenes, unearths details on the many eccentricities and oddities of this iconic London venue. One can even take afternoon tea after the tour with a champagne option!
The Hall, which is a registered charity and operates without public funding, certainly has a rich and remarkable history - with a myriad of Czech and Slovak musical and sporting connections having graced the venue amongst a whole host other of nationalities. In fact the auditorium hosts over 370 shows a year by the world’s greatest artists. In the Secret History Tour, you can discover those artists that were once banned from the Hall, which famous films have used the building as a set, and the singer who was so overawed by his first view of the place that he went horse-riding instead of turning up for his concert.
As well as unearthing links between the Albert Hall and the Suffragettes and backstage stories of visits by Liz Taylor and Whitney Houston, this Grade I listed building is associated with tales about ghost hunters, swindlers, gangsters and hosted baptisms, séances and even a funeral. Over half a century ago in 1956, Alfred Hitchcock filmed the climax of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' here starring Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day.
In the world of pop, the Hall was the venue on 15 September 1963 of 'The Great Pop Prom', an annual event that had been held since 1958 showcasing top pop star talent. This 1963 concert goes down in history as the first of only two occasions when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones would appear on the same bill (see: http://life.royalalberthall.com/2013/04/17/the-beatles-at-the-hall/).
The Beatles' song 'A Day in the Life' mentions the Hall in the line: 'Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall' and The Kinks' song 'Session Man' (1966) also makes reference ('He never will forget at all...The day he played at the Albert Hall').
Around sixty artists from the Czech and Slovak republics have visited and performed at the RAH according to the archives - from composers to cellists and from top tennis players to politicians (Edvard Benes, 2nd & 4th President of Czechoslovakia), the 'Czech Elvis' Karel Gott and even wrestler Roman Waniek. The list is pretty rich.
Among a welter of names are Štefan Margita, a Slovak opera singer who has performed at many of the world's best opera houses, Slovak pianist Peter Toperczer (1944-2010), Slovak bass Peter Mikuláš, who is the holder of awards from vocal competitions of A. Dvorak in Karlovy Vary (1978) and. P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow (1982), as well as a number of Slovak operatic sopranos and tenors.
On the Czech side one can count prima ballerina Daria Klimentova (http://dariaklimentova.com/), who gave her final performance at the Hall on 22 June, 2014 as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Libuse Hynková (1923-2012), Czech choreographer, ethnographer and founder of the Czechoslovak State song and Dance Ensemble, baritones (Ivan Kusnjer, Otakar Kraus), and Daniel Veis, recognised as the finest Czech cellist since winning the first prize at the Prague Spring Competition (1976) and silver medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition a few years later.
Among a dozen Czech conductors to have graced the stage here are Prague-born Libor Pešek KBE, currently chief conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (www.cnso.cz/en) and former Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra music director, Hynek Sluka (1911-1971), Jaroslav Krombholc (1918-1983) and Rafael Kubelík (1914-1996), who was born in Bohemia (then part of Austria-Hungary) and became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
Pianists include Radoslav Kvapil and Czech-American Rudolf Firkušný (1912-1994). Moravian-born Firkušný began his musical studies with the composer Leoš Janáček, who is considered one of the most important Czech composers along with Dvořák and Smetana. An interesting link between Janáček and the Hall is that English rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded 'Live at the Royal Albert Hall' album during a tour in October 1992. One of the songs on the album - 'Knife-Edge' - is based on the first movement of Janáček's Sinfonietta, which was first performed in Prague on 26 June 1926 under conductor Václav Talich.
On the sporting front, tennis was first played at the Hall back in March 1970 and the ATP Champions Tour Masters (www.statoilmasterstennis.com) has been held here annually every December since 1997. And, the list of Czech and Slovak tennis players includes some of the crème de la crème: František Pála, Miloslav Mečíř, Vladimir Zednik, Renáta Tomanová, Pavel Složil, Jan Kodeš, Tomáš Šmíd, Ivan Lendl, Martina Navrátilová, Jakob Hlasek and Petr Korda.
It was Prague-born Korda who won the ATP title at the Hall in 2002. And, at the time of writing, he remains the last man from the Czech Republic to have won a Grand Slam singles title, at the Australian Open in 1998.
The Secret History Tour costs £12.50 per adult (concessions available at £10.50) and £5.50 for children. RAH Afternoon Tea is available at £23.46 and Champagne Afternoon Tea at £33.66.
For tour bookings visit: www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/tours-and-exhibitions/secret-history-to…
Roger Aitken is a freelance journalist who contributes to Forbes (www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/) amongst other titles and was a former FT staff writer.