florida state university college of music performance practice

CHAPTER 3
CURRENTS IN BACH INTERPRETATION
Theoretically, the reception, interpretation and performance of Bach‟s works
should reflect a mirror‟s image or run parallel to the attitudes regarding performance
practice outlined in the previous chapter. However, an introspective view leads one to
discover there can be critical differences in perceptions of performance practice, the
various images of Bach and how one approaches performing his works. Additionally,
consequential events regarding Bach erudition are important enough to deserve specific
mention outside a survey of events pertaining to the performance practice of early music.
Surveying the consequential events in Bach research, as well as the various suggested
images of Bach, provides a conceptual framework to make possible correlations to
certain conductors who interpret Bach‟s St. John Passion based possibly on their
perception of Bach. Throughout this chapter, special attention will be made to highlight
the various images of Bach that have evolved. Later within this dissertation, certain
conductors will be analyzed to discover if they empathize with one image of Bach in
particular and if it shapes their performance in a particular way.
The Nineteenth Century – Achievements in Bach scholarship
The Bach revival in the nineteenth century is so famously recorded in the legendary
Eduard Devrient (1801-1877) account 141 of Felix Mendelssohn‟s 1829 resurrection of
Bach‟s St. Matthew Passion. 142 As with many of history‟s attributions, it is likely that
many more contributed to the “Bach revival” than the singular personality of
Mendelssohn. Particularly influential to Mendelssohn was Carl Friedrich Fasch (1736-
1800) and Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). This pedigree of influence centered on the
revival of choral singing in Germany through the creation of the Berliner Singakademie,
141 David and Mendel suggest that Devrient‟s recollection concerning the events leading up to the 1829
performance of the St. Matthew Passion may have been somewhat romanticized and/or embellished
considering it was written so long after the event. See Christoph Wolff, ed. The New Bach Reader: A Life
of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. (London and New York: Norton, 1998), 508.
142 Karl Hochreither‟s perception of this event states that this performance dramatically changed the context
of Bach‟s works. No longer were Bach‟s works primarily used for a liturgical function but are now part of
the concert repertory for which they were not originally intended. See Karl Hochreither, “Some Reflections
on the Performance of Bach‟s Vocal-Instrumental Works,” Bach 13.2 (April 1977):4.
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