florida state university college of music performance practice

touted as original instruments. More often than not, this actually means instruments that
are copies of originals. Only one of the thirty-eight recordings did not include an
instrument that would be considered “historical” in the eighteenth century sense of the
word. The lone recording without any “historical instruments” was Hermann Max‟s
presentation of Robert Schumann‟s arrangement of the St. John Passion. 351 This
interesting recording, that prominently features Romantic inclinations like the pianoforte
accompanying recitatives, clearly would not be expected to include Baroque instruments
because Max‟s purpose was to present an interpretation that demonstrated Romantic style
performance practice. Even Helmut Rilling, who argued for many years the advantage of
using modern instruments, incorporated a viola da gamba in his 1996 St. John Passion.
Unlike the choices regarding choir size it seems that choosing early instruments, or
copies of early instruments, is an accepted practice, demonstrated by a consensus of the
conductors studied in this dissertation. Whether it was an entire orchestra made up of
historical instruments or just a few like the viola da gamba or oboe da caccia, conductors
seem to feel strongly that it is paramount to perform the St. John Passion with early
instruments. Thus, the recordings examined here provide credibility to the reality that
historical instruments that used to be part of the periphery in the early to middle of the
twentieth century, have now evolved to exist in the mainstream.
351 It could be argued that Max‟s 2006 recording featuring Schumann‟s version of the St. John Passion
demonstrates period performance and instruments indicative of the Romantic era.
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