‘Raising the Bar: Bach and Victorian Musical Aspiration’, paper for the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Insight Day From Bach to Mendelssohn, curated by Sir Nicholas Kenyon at Magdalen College Auditorium, Oxford, 30 November 2024

Felix Mendelssohn’s revival of the St Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829 has long been considered pivotal to the wider recognition of J.S. Bach. Yet connections between Mendelssohn and Bach go deeper and wider, as this day of talks showed, introducing the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s season From Bach to Mendelssohn. With contributions from Christoph Wolff, Peter Ward Jones, Susan Wollenberg, Stephen Roe, Thomas Schmidt, Benedict Taylor and Michael Maul, and a panel on changing performance styles chaired by Nicholas Kenyon and Katy Hamilton, the ideas ranged widely.

My paper considered how conditions for hearing and appreciating Bach in mid-19th-century England changed after a select group experiencing the ‘Bach awakening’ had promoted his keyboard music from the 1780s to the 1820s. From the 1830s, a second phase of English revival attracted many more converts, especially amateur choral singers.

The surge was helped by a fresh critical view of the German composer as new, not old, his music invigorating. Technically challenging, potentially fruitful for higher musical achievement in the future, it offered the possibility of moving beyond Handelian oratorio at a time when both artistic and social progress were needed but lacked inspiration in England. Bach’s B-minor Mass ‘Credo’ and his Six Motetts featured as key works to be studied, performed and celebrated.

Mendelssohn’s friend William Sterndale Bennett, who conducted the first English Matthew Passion in 1854, played a part, to be sure.

But my research highlighted especially two lesser-known advocates, the respected critic Edward Holmes and the music educator John Hullah, whose literary and practical work directly facilitated Bennett’s. Together all three opened a wider path for Bach than has yet been recognized.

‘I’m still telling anyone who’ll listen about Hullah and St Martin’s Hall, the whole thing is completely fascinating and I’m so grateful to you for introducing me to it all!

Katy Hamilton

‘A memorable and informative day’

Stephen Roe