In his novel, the picture of Dorian Grey, Wilde spends some time discussing Grey's capacity for the hedonistic worship of the senses. It contains the following passage.

"....... in a long latticed room, with a vermilion-and-gold ceiling and walls of olive-green lacquer, he used to give curious concerts in which mad gipsies tore wild music from little zithers, or grave, yellow-shawled Tunisians plucked at the strained strings of monstrous lutes, while grinning Negroes beat monotonously upon copper drums and, crouching upon scarlet mats, slim turbaned Indians blew through long pipes of reed or brass and charmed--or feigned to charm--great hooded snakes and horrible horned adders. The harsh intervals and shrill discords of barbaric music stirred him at times when Schubert's grace, and Chopin's beautiful sorrows, and the mighty harmonies of Beethoven himself, fell unheeded on his ear."

This passage puzzles me, not least because of the lack of public knowledge of ethnic music during the time Wilde wrote the book. However, while Wilde could have got the musical descriptions from some anthropological journal or travellers' memoirs, the suggestion is that Grey was holding these concerts in London.

Before I dismiss the idea as pure fantasy, does anyone know of any way that these sounds could have been heard live in London at that time?