florida state university college of music performance practice

movements omitted, conducted by Joseph Barnby and occurring that same year on March
22. 314 A subsequent performance of the Saint John Passion took place five years later on
Good Friday of 1875 by conductor Otto Goldschmidt. 315 While the name Goldschmidt
may not be familiar to many, his wife was the famous Swedish singer, Jenny Lind.
Goldschmidt was not without his own credentials being that he studied in Leipzig and for
a time was a pupil of Felix Mendelssohn. 316
With the spirit of momentum, Goldschmidt went on to enlist eighty singers and
rehearsed for six months in hopes to perform the Mass in B minor. 317 On April 26, 1876,
he recorded in his diary that the first complete English performance of Bach‟s Mass in B
minor was a success. However, a review of the concert from the The Musical Times critic
noted that while it was an achievement he questioned Goldschmidt‟s choices of
instruments. Specifically the reviewer had issue that Goldschmidt substituted clarinets in
the “Gloria” with trumpets. He goes on to say, “Supposing that Bach‟s music should find
such an acceptance with an English public as to warrant the frequent performance of his
works, it becomes a question whether a resuscitation both of the oboe d‟amore and the
viola da gamba would not be advisable.” 318 The review foreshadows currents in the early
music movement and demonstrates that there were individuals who were interested in
performance practice in the late nineteenth century.
Obviously, this current of opinion as expressed in the above review did not go
unnoticed. When Goldschmidt resigned in 1885, The Bach Choir chose as his successor
Charles Villiers Stanford. His attention to details regarding original instrumentation is
demonstrated by his 1895 incomplete performance of the St. Matthew Passion in
German. Stanford secured Arnold Dolmetsch to play the harpsichord while Dolmetsch‟s
daughter, Hélène, played the viola da gamba. 319 Likewise, during Stanford‟s next concert
season of 1896 arrangements were made to purchase an oboe d‟amore for a performance
of the St. John Passion. 320
314
Leaver, “The Revival of the St. John Passion,” 16.
315
Ibid.
316
“Choir History of The Bach Choir” http;//www.thebachchoir.org/uk/history.htm (accessed March 11,
2008).
317
Leaver, “The Revival of the St. John Passion,” 16.
318
The Musical Times 17, 1876, p. 500.
319
Leaver, “The Revival of the St. John Passion,” 17.
320 Ibid.
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