London Bach Society
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The London Bach Society is a society devoted to performing the music of
History
The London Bach Society was founded in 1946 by
On 22 March 1952, the Society presented the first performance in the UK of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in its complete and original German form. It has since been suggested that this performance, an honest attempt to take a fresh look at an established masterpiece, marked the beginning of the move towards historically aware performances of the composer's music in the UK. Annual performances of the St. Matthew and, on occasion the St John Passion, continued until 1989. Between 1958 and 1987 the LBS choir under Steinitz performed all the extant church and secular
Paul Steinitz' work with the London Bach Society in the early years was complemented by the foundation in 1955, with Joan Brocklebank, of the
Paul Steinitz founded Steinitz Bach Players in 1968, a professional group that engaged musicians able to apply Baroque performance practice to their playing. Having introduced the natural/clarino trumpet, baroque flute, the cornett and sackbut into the chamber orchestra earlier in the 1960s, the foundation of an orchestra to join with the London Bach Society's choir was not only a natural progression, but also a significant development of Society as a whole, although initially the orchestra was run as a separate charity. All this was at a time when the use of period instruments, those with which the composer would have been familiar, moved from being an idle curiosity and the fascination of the few to becoming a reality. At foundation Steinitz Bach Players used modern instruments. They moved to period ones later as expertise grew. By 1985 the development of Baroque instruments and the technique of the players was such that the choir was able to perform the St Matthew Passion with a complete orchestra of period instruments and this they did for the opening concert of the 1985 Bath International Music Festival in Wells Cathedral and later in 1987 at Westminster Abbey, the latter being the last time Steinitz conducted the work. In response to the changing times and their respective progress since foundation, the London Bach Society and Steinitz Bach Players were wound up as separate charities in 1983 and a new charity was formed that incorporated both the choir and the orchestra and which expanded the membership provision. This was a major development for the Society, moving it on from being amateur-based to one that is professional. In addition, and having already accumulated a distinguished folio of contemporary works, some written to commission and others given 'first performances' mainly during the 1960s and 1970s, the contemporary music provision in the Society's artistic policy was closed for the time being. With other groups like London Sinfonietta and the Nash Ensemble emerging that were better equipped to promote New Music, Dr. Steinitz felt able to focus his full attention on the completion of the Bach cantata cycle now into its third decade. However, there was one final commission, funded by the Arts Council, from Christopher Brown, to write a cantata as part of Paul Steinitz's 75th birthday series in 1984.
The completion of the Bach cantata series on 12 December 1987 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall was an historic milestone in this country, the first cycle of the extant church and secular cantatas to have been given in the UK complete and in public. Paul Steinitz lived just long enough to fulfil his lifelong ambition, for he died in April 1988 aged 78.
In 1989, a year after Steinitz's death, the decision was taken to disband the amateur choir and to continue in the way that Steinitz had already begun as early as 1976 in the BBC recording studio: a gradual reduction of the choral forces for Bach's vocal works to lead eventually to employing very small groups of professional singers, and with boys’ voices where possible - the latter first revealed with the participation in a BBC recording of cantatas by Salisbury Cathedral Choir in 1979. These would provide the appropriate vocal forces to balance with small groups of period instruments and be both a natural progression and an expression of the Society's underlying musical principles. An annual Bach Festival was subsequently founded by Steinitz's widow Margaret and the first of these took place in 1990. At that time it was known as the London Bach Festival, but today it continues under the title London Bach Society's Bachfest. Building on Steinitz' musical legacy, the events and programmes attempt to place Bach's works in context with his life and times, complemented by those of his antecedents and contemporaries. There have been some significant Bachfest events too. In 1994, Bach's old choir, the Thomanerchor in Leipzig made its UK debut, Gustav Leonhardt directed at the LBS Golden Jubilee in 1996 and gave a rare keyboard recital in 1999, and in 2005 the UK 'live' première of a newly discovered Bach Aria was given, to name but a few. At the annual Bachfest in 2013, the UK 'live' première of Bach's St Matthew Passion in its early version (1727) was performed and a year later CPE Bach's 300th was celebrated.
Under the guidance and leadership of Margaret Steinitz, the London Bach Society has continued to entertain, experiment, uplift and inspire all lovers of Bach's music as well as building up an invaluable database for Bach studies and an imaginative educational programme. In the autumns of 2006 and 2007 the LBS celebrated its
LBS Support Network
LBS is funded mainly privately and supported by private donors, patrons, trusts, foundations and corporate donors. The Society welcomes new donors in support of its work as a unique Bach Society in the UK. Memberships have ceased to be offered since 2013 when further step-changes in fund-raising were implemented that created a new donor scheme - Bach Friends - and widened the range of sources to tap for financial support as the funding market itself continued to evolve. In addition, during the 2010s the Society received three Arts Council England 'Grants for the Arts ' awards, and in October 2020 a Government Culture Recovery Fund grant to assist the Society through the COVID-19 pandemic was received.
References
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