Introduction

Joachim's connections with Britain were lengthy and deeply grounded. They began in 1844 when he created a sensation as a twelve-year-old with his performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the Philharmonic Society of London under Mendelssohn. From then until his late years, when he still played privately, he was a regular visitor, with many close friends as well as strong family ties. By his death in 1907, he had attained a unique position in British musical life, the second edition of Grove's Dictionary still evaluating him as “the greatest of living violin players.”

Although the Philharmonic Society (founded 1813) dominated London's orchestral music, and its social circle would have provided powerful musical connections for the young Joachim, the concerts of the Crystal Palace, which began only in October 1855, quickly became an equally important location for the promotion of the emerging “classical” concert music repertoire. By the early 1860s, its concerts were widely reviewed and regarded as competition for the Philharmonic. Though the Crystal Palace was not designed as a musical venue—its famous glass and iron building was first built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was expanded in 1854 in a suburban parkland setting as a great center for arts and education— high-quality musical performance quickly developed there. This came about through the support of the music-loving secretary, George Grove, and the abilities and ambitions of the newly appointed German conductor, August Manns, who took over after only a year from the opening and transformed the resident wind band into a full orchestra. The focus of Crystal Palace orchestral music was the Saturday Concert, when the resident orchestra was strengthened by front-desk string players from London orchestras, the program usually requiring a concerto with one or more supporting items by the soloist. Joachim first played at the Crystal Palace on 29 March 1862, and last on 14 March 1899; he invariably visited in the spring. Grove's dedication to German music remained clear throughout his career, especially in his scholarly work on Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schubert. His major entries on these composers remained through the first four editions of the Grove Dictionary, and his program notes for the Crystal Palace concerts had even more immediate authority at the time.