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Sir Henry Wood: Champion of J.S. Bach
- Author: French, Hannah
Engaging and meticulous...provides a vivid picture of the changing public taste as well as a chronicle of Wood's passion for a composer whom he brought into the mainstream...what a heroic tale...
Sir Henry Wood: Champion of J.S. Bach
- Author: French, Hannah
Purchase product
Engaging and meticulous...provides a vivid picture of the changing public taste as well as a chronicle of Wood's passion for a composer whom he brought into the mainstream...what a heroic tale...
About
Sir Henry J. Wood (1869-1944), co-founder and chief conductor of the Proms, is often noted for his championing of the leading composers of the day, including Richard Strauss, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Vaughan Williams. He also played pivotal role in advocating and performing the music of J.S. Bach. Sir Henry J. Wood (1869-1944), co-founder and chief conductor of the Proms for nearly half a century, is often noted for his championing of the leading composers of the day, including Richard Strauss, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Ravel,Sibelius, and Vaughan Williams. Less known is the part Wood played in advocating and performing the music of J.S. Bach, much of which, incredibly, was unknown in England at the turn of the twentieth century. This book uncoversWood's pivotal role in the English Bach revival. Wood's performances of works such as the St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass caused a stir; the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites became staple fixtures in the musical calendar; and his orchestral arrangements of Bach's solo works and cantata arias were key to the popularisation of the composer in England. Largely untouched, the hundreds of Bach scores individually marked up by Wood, now preservedin his archive at the Royal Academy of Music, London, reveal the minutiae of his thoughts on performance and offer a fascinating parallel to his available recordings from the period. Illuminating a significant new aspect of the musical life of England before World War II, the book also demonstrates that Wood's advocacy continues to influence perceptions of Bach even today. DR HANNAH FRENCH is an academic, broadcaster, and Baroque flautist based in London. She broadcasts regularly on Radio 3 and has appeared as a TV presenter and commentator for the BBC Proms.
Contents
- Introduction: Wood's Role in the English Bach Revival
- Bach in Pre-Proms England
- Wood's Encounter with Bach
- Orchestral Bach at the Proms
- Wood's Bach Players
- Performance Scores
- Recordings
- An Editorial Project
- Orchestral Arrangements
- The Cantatas
- Passions and the Mass
- The Reception of Wood's Bach
- Wood's Bach Legacy
- Epilogue
- Appendix A: The Bach Choir: Performances of Bach's Orchestral works 1884-1944
- Appendix B: John Sebastian Bach: The times he lived in, and his life's work
- Appendix C: Bach Performances at the Proms 1895-1944
- Appendix D: Promenades 1941: nightly attendance and income
- Appendix E: Soloists in the Orchestral Suites and Brandenburg Concertos 1895-1944
- Appendix F: Members of the New Queen's Hall Orchestra 1928
- Appendix G: Wood's predecessors and contemporaries in the field of Bach arrangements and transcriptions
- Appendix H: A sample of Bach performances given in 1926
- Appendix I: Performances of the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites at the Proms 1945-2018
- Bibliography
Awards and reviews
Engaging and meticulous...provides a vivid picture of the changing public taste as well as a chronicle of Wood's passion for a composer whom he brought into the mainstream...what a heroic tale this splendidly detailed book tells. Both in its story of Henry Wood's enthusiasm to build a public for great music, and its story of the changing reception of Bach, it is a fascinating contribution to the emerging history of the early music revival
[R]eaders of this book will gain a deep appreciation for the ground-breaking achievements of Sir Henry Wood. With the rich detail of his performance methodology now documented and readily available, he can be remembered not only as a promoter of Bach, but also as a conductor who helped raise the musicianship of England's orchestral performances to the high level enjoyed by 20th- and 21st-century audiences. -- Valerie Walden
Music and Letters
The concern to document Wood's practice and aesthetic is very impressive and complemented by a clear prose style and Boydell's usual high production values. . . . [A] valuable contribution to the understanding of a neglected but significant field of study, bridging the interval between the relatively well-known aspects of British practice before 1914 and the development of historically informed performances in the post-war period. -- Paul Rodmell
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