Bach Revived Part II

This afternoon's events are presented in association with the Bodleian Libraries. 

Following Robert Quinney's lecture this morning, we continue our study day on Bach in the Weston Library.

2.30pm Dr Hannah French explores early performances of the St Matthew Passion and the foundation of the first Bach Societies:
Some 90 years after it was last heard in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Felix Mendelssohn’s 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion marked a pivotal moment in the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. As a direct response to this event, two notable characters from Mendelssohn’s circle emerge as key players in the burgeoning Bach movement. Robert Schumann was inspired to investigate the resting place of the composer with the intention to organize a more fitting monument to his memory, and in 1850 became a founder member of the Bach Gesellschaft. William Sterndale Bennett established the Bach Society and mounted the first performance of the work in English. In the 200 anniversary year of Sterndale Bennett’s birth, and in the surroundings of the Bodleian Library (which holds Mendelssohn’s score and parts from his later 1841 performance), Dr Hannah French will investigate the colourful details of early revival performances of the St Matthew Passion.

3.15pm  Songs from the Anna Magdalena Notebook and extracts from Schumann's accompanied versions of Bach violin works. Sholto Kynoch is joined by soprano Turiya Haudenhuyse and violinist Jonathan Stone.

4pm Richard Wigmore takes a closer look at where the influence of Bach can be heard in many of Schumann's songs. 

This afternoon's events are free, although booking is recommended.

This is also followed by:

5.30pm, the Phoenix Piano Trio perform Mendelssohn's second piano trio in C minor, with its famous last-movement chorale clearly a legacy of Bach and the Lutheran chorale.

Lastly, at 10pm, the Oxford Bach Soloists under conductor Tom Hammond-Davies perform three Bach cantatas in New College Chapel, joined by renowned tenor James Gilchrist.