The Bach Choir - 20th Century

20th Century

By the end of the 19th century, the choir faced a major crisis. Deteriorating standards of performance through a combination of an ageing membership not subject to re-audition and an unrealistic rehearsal time produced mounting financial losses. Changes were made, with membership opened to all social groups and regular re-tests for existing members. Stanford resigned in 1902 to take up the conductorship of the Leeds Festival and was replaced by Henry Walford Davies, who rebuilt the choir and then handed over to Hugh Allen in 1907.

Allen inherited a choir that included Ralph Vaughan Williams and later Adrian Boult among the singing members. He had already gained a reputation as a choral conductor at Ely and Oxford and brought immense energy to the task. Under him a number of first London performances were given, including Toward the Unknown Region and A Sea Symphony. He also steered the choir through the difficult years of the First World War and in 1916 was able to give the first performance of Parry's Songs of Farewell.

The growing pressure of his commitments obliged Allen to resign in 1921, to be succeeded by Vaughan Williams. While he remained faithful to the tradition of the performance of Bach and in particular the St Matthew Passion, he also gave audiences the opportunity to hear works by contemporary composers, including his good friend Gustav Holst, and in 1926 he conducted the choir in the first London performance of his oratorio Sancta Civitas.

Resigning in 1928 to concentrate on composing, Vaughan Williams was succeeded by Holst. After accepting the appointment, however, he was obliged to resign on medical grounds three months later. With a new season fast approaching the choir were in difficulty but, although he was already heavily committed, Adrian Boult saved the situation by accepting the appointment. Although only in charge for four seasons he produced singing of a high quality and introduced challenging contemporary works. His lasting legacy, however, was to initiate annual complete performances of the St Matthew Passion in English, a tradition that continues to the present day.

Boult was followed in 1932 by Reginald Jacques, who had been a pupil of Hugh Allen at Oxford. In a stay of twenty-eight years he introduced the traditional annual Carol Concert, ensured that activities continued without a break during the Second World War, and in 1949 conducted the choir in their first recording – a performance of the St Matthew Passion with Kathleen Ferrier as the contralto soloist. This filled forty-two sides of the old style 78 rpm discs. Ferrier had made her debut in Messiah with the choir in 1943.

Following the sudden departure of Jacques in 1960 after a heart attack the post of musical director went to David Willcocks, director of music at King's College, Cambridge. He was soon pointing the choir in new directions by introducing important contemporary works, including Honegger's King David, Delius's Sea Drift and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass, and undertaking a number of recordings. Most notable of these was a performance of Britten's War Requiem conducted by the composer, a recording that sold 200,000 copies in the first five months. A series of foreign tours was also arranged with visits to the United States, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, France, Sweden and South Africa. The choir gave the Italian premiere of the War Requiem at La Scala, Milan. Among the conductors under whom the choir sang in the later part of the 20th century were Pierre Monteux (under whom the choir performed and recorded Beethoven's Ninth Symphony), Jascha Horenstein, Lorin Maazel and David Oistrakh. Willcocks retired in 1998 after thirty-eight years in charge.