© Malcolm Tozer 2017

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Josef Joachim at Uppingham School
Malcolm Tozer

A post elsewhere on this website, Paul David: Joseph Joachim (1894), notes the relationship between two Leipzig friends:

Paul David (1840-1932) was the son of Joseph Joachim’s mentor, the Gewandhaus concertmaster Ferdinand David. In his later years, he was the first Director of Music at the Uppingham School in Uppingham, Rutland, England. Joachim’s last performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto was at the dedication of the [Paul] David Concert Room at Uppingham School, May 23, 1905.

David’s ‘later years’ at Uppingham School extended from 1865, when he was 25 years of age, until 1908, when he retired to Oxford. The new Concert Room at the school, in part modelled on the interior of the Gewandhaus and doubling up as a gymnasium, marked his fortieth year at the school and celebrated the achievements of the first director of music at any British school.

Joachim had been a frequent visitor to England since 1844 so he agreed to accompany David, nine years his junior, on his maiden trip abroad and to travel with him all the way to Uppingham – a market town in England’s smallest county, 90 miles north of London. The Rev Edward Thring had raised the town’s ancient grammar school, with a local reputation and two dozen pupils, to a boarding school of national renown and three hundred boys in the twelve years since his appointment in 1853. Thring was obviously pleased with his new addition to the teaching staff for he declared Monday 13 March 1865 ‘a half holiday in honour of Herr David’s arrival’.

The Leipzig friends kept in touch over the next decade as David appointed a team of six, mainly German, music teachers to instruct the boys, and he steadily improved the standard of the school’s choral and instrumental music. By 1875 David had the confidence to invite Joachim back to Uppingham to see – or rather – to hear what he had achieved. Better than that, Joachim agreed to play in a school concert. It was the first of many visits.

Joachim usually visited England each spring to perform in London and in provincial cities. Thus it was arranged that he would join the school concert that David, his colleagues and the boys had prepared for the end of the spring term, 10 March 1875. This pattern was repeated in successive years, with concerts in late March or early April. The Uppinghamians usually performed an oratorio by Mendelssohn or Handel; Joachim brought his own programme and friends to play with him or, in later years, joined the school orchestra of boys, masters and guests.

It comes as a surprise that Joachim’s visits to Uppingham were not well publicised by the school. In consequence it has taken much searching of school magazines, concert programmes, local newspapers, diaries and correspondence to discover when he came and what he played. To date, sixteen visits have been identified but there may be more. Joachim’s ninth visit as listed below is recorded in the Uppingham School Magazine of 1891 as his sixteenth. If that is correct, there were six more visits between 1875 and 1891. Comments in contemporary correspondence noted that he was expected in 1888, whilst in 1879, 1880, 1881, 1883 and 1887 Joachim played in the nearby cities of Leicester or Nottingham in the period close to the time of the Uppingham spring concerts. The hunt goes on.

The programmes of what Joachim played and who he played with are as follows.

1. 10 March 1875

• J S Bach concerto for two violins in D minor BWV1043 – with Paul David*
• J S Bach violin partita no 3 in E major BWV1006
• Mendelssohn string octet in E-flat major opus 20 – violins Josef Joachim, Wilhelm Wiener, Edward H Donkin, Paul David; violas Hermann Heydrich*, Josef Ludwig, William F Donkin; cellos Hugo Daubert, Arthur E Donkin
• Spohr barcarolle opus 135 no 1
• Brahms/Joachim Hungarian Dances (probably no 2 in D minor & no 6 in D-flat major)

* = Uppingham School music teacher

This concert raised £45 for the Bach Memorial at Eisenach.

Paul David* (1841-1932), German by birth but naturalised British, was Music and Choir Master at Uppingham School from 1865 to 1908. He was the son and pupil of Ferdinand David of Leipzig.
Wilhelm Wiener (1838-1895) was a distinguished London-based violinist and professor.
Hermann Heydrich* (1856-) was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1876 to 1881.
Josef Ludwig (1844-1924), German by birth but naturalised British, was a violinist, teacher and composer. As a boy he had studied under Julius Grünwald and Ferdinand Hiller in Cologne. He then went to Hanover where he was a student of Josef Joachim in 1864 and 1865. He ran an annual series of chamber concerts in London in the 1880s and 1890s.
Edward H Donkin, William F Donkin and Arthur E Donkin were from the well-known family of Oxford amateur musicians.
Hugo Daubert was a well-known London-based cellist.

2. 28 March 1878

• Spohr violin concerto no 8 in A minor ‘in modo di scena cantante’ opus 47
• Beethoven string quartet in C major opus 59 no 3 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Hugo Daubert
• Tartini violin sonata in G minor, Bg5 ‘The Devil’s Shake’

3. 31 March 1882

• Viotti concerto for violin no 22 in A minor
• Beethoven string quintet in C major opus 29 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; violas Josef Ludwig, Hermann Heydrich; cello William Whitehouse
• Brahms/Joachim Hungarian Dances (probably no 2 in D minor & no 6 in D-flat major)

William Whitehouse (1859-) studied violin under Adolphe Griesbach and cello under Walter Pettit before entering the Royal Academy of Music to be taught by Alfredo Piatti and Alessandro Pezze . He became Professor of the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, the Royal College of Music, King’s College, London, and Manchester New College of Music. He was a regular performer at Josef Ludwig’s chamber concerts.

4. 28 March 1884

• Mozart violin concerto no 5 K219
• Mendelssohn violin concerto in E minor opus 64
• Haydn string quartet no 53 in D major (“The Lark”), opus 64, no 5 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Charles Ould

Charles Ould received his first tuition from a member of the orchestra of the Italian Opera in London before transferring to the Belgian cellist, Guillaume Paque. For many years he was first cellist at the London concerts run by Hans Richter.

5. 24 March 1885

No details of the programme are recorded.

Eight instrumentalists are named: violins Josef Joachim, Emil Mahr; violas Josef Ludwig, Hermann Heydrich; cello Carl Zeisberg*; double bass James Haydn Waud; oboe A Peisel; trumpet Julius Kosleck

Julius Kosleck was in England to play at Joachim’s suggestion in Bach’s B-minor Mass on the bicentenary of the composer’s birth on 21 March 1885 at the Albert Hall in London.

The school magazine reports that Joachim played five items, at least one with the orchestra, and mentions a bourrée, a gavotte and a chaconne: this suggests J S Bach Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001-1006.

Emil Mahr (1851-1914) had been a pupil of Josef Joachim and he played at several Bayreuth Festivals. He later moved to the New England Conservatory.
Carl Zeisberg* (1856-) was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1879 to 1898.
James Haydn Waud (1848-1918) was Professor at the Guildhall School of Music, a member of the Philharmonic Society, and was principal double bass for many years of the Glasgow Choral Union, the Crystal Palace Orchestra, and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. He composed numerous double bass solos and three orchestral overtures.
A Peisel played in concerts throughout the English Midlands in the 1880s and 1890s.
Julius Kosleck (1825-1905), a German, was the leading trumpeter of the day. He played in the Berlin Königliche Kapelle and taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik . He was founder of the Kaiser-Kornettquartett in 1885, which became the Kosleck’sche Bläserbund in 1890.

6. 13 April 1886

• Spohr violin concerto no 8 in A minor ‘in modo di scena cantante’ opus 47
• Mendelssohn string octet in E-flat major opus 20 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David, Samuel Fricker*, Emil Mahr; violas Otto Oberholtzer*, Otto Krause; cellos Charles Ould, Gerardo Vollmar
• Violin solo arranged from Schumann by Ernst Rudorff, from Klavierstücke für kleine und große Kinder opus 85: Gartenmelodie no 3 and Am Springbrunnen no 6

Samuel Fricker* (1856-) was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1878 to 1891 and from 1893 until 1923. He had been a pupil of Josef Joachim in Berlin. He married Paul David’s daughter Charlotte.
Otto Oberholtzer* (1861-) was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1882 to 1891. He had studied in Leipzig.
Otto Krause – nothing known.
Gerardo Vollmar played in the Quartetto Campanari in the 1890s.

7. 10 April 1889

• Beethoven string quartet in F major opus 18 no 1 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Alfredo Piatti
• Joachim romance – solo
• Spohr scherzo opus 135 no 2
• Spohr duet for violins opus 67 no 2 – with Josef Ludwig
• J S Bach Partita no 3 in E major BWV1006 – solo

Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901) was considered the best cellist playing in Britain. He had been principal cellist in the Italian Opera orchestra. He was a long-time member of quartets led by Josef Joachim, playing with Louis Ries, Ludwig Strauss, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and Henryk Wieniawski. Robert Haussmann and William Whitehouse were two of his pupils.

8. 8 March 1890

• Beethoven string quartet no 4 in C minor opus 18 no 4 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Hermann Heydrich; cello William Whitehouse
• Spohr violin concerto no 7 opus 38, adagio – solo
• Haydn string quartet in G major opus 76 no 1 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Hermann Heydrich; cello William Whitehouse

9. 24 March 1891

• J S Bach concerto for two violins in D minor BWV1043 – with Josef Ludwig
• Beethoven romances for violin and orchestra no 1 in G major opus 40, and no 2 in F major opus 50
• Mendelssohn string quintet in B-flat major opus 87 – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; violas Josef Ludwig, Hermann Heydrich; cello Charles Ould

10. 16 April 1892

• Bruch violin concerto no 3 in D minor opus 58 – adagio – accompanied by Theodor Raillard* piano
• J S Bach Violin Sonata in C minor, either BWV1017 or 1024 – this was an encore
• Spohr double string quartet in E minor opus 87 – violins Josef Joachim, Josef Ludwig, Paul David, Samuel Fricker; violas Hermann Heydrich, B F Fletcher*; cellos Paul Ludwig, Carl Zeisberg
• Handel sonata for violin in A major (probably HWV361) – accompanied by Theodor Raillard piano

Theodor Raillard* (1865-) was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1888 to 1893. He had studied in Berlin.
B F Fletcher* was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1891 to 1893. He had studied at the Royal College of Music.
Paul Ludwig was a member of several London chamber groups in the 1890s and 1900s. He played in the inaugural performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Piano Quintet in 1905.

11. 16 March 1893

• J S Bach chaconne
• Mendelssohn violin concerto in E minor opus 64 – andante
• N W Gade capriccio in A minor
• Mendelssohn violin concerto in E minor opus 64 – allegretto non troppo, allegro molto vivace – this was an encore
• Mendelssohn string octet in E-flat major opus 20 – violins Josef Joachim, Samuel Fricker, Theo Kienle*, K Metzler*; violas Josef Ludwig, Hermann Heydrich; cellos William Whitehouse, Carl Zeisberg

Theo Kienle* was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1891 to 1893. He had studied in Berlin.
K Metzler* was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1893 to 1900. He had studied in Leipzig.

12. 20 March 1894

• Spohr violin concerto no 8 in A minor ‘in modo di scena cantante’ opus 47
• Schumann piano quintet in E-flat major opus 44 – piano Fanny Davies; violins Josef Joachim, Paul David violins; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Paul Ludwig
• N W Gade capriccio in A minor

Fanny Davies (1861-1904) was a student of Clara Schumann in Frankfurt in 1883 and 1885. After her debut in the Crystal Palace, her career led her to Spain, Hungary, Germany, Austria, France and Italy. Her play was considered a perfect reflection of her teacher’s.

13. 31 March 1896

• Spohr violin concerto no 7 opus 38, adagio – solo
• Spohr barcarolle opus 135 no 1 – as an encore
• Haydn symphony no 4 in D major, Hoboken I/4 – Joachim in the orchestra
• Beethoven septet in E-flat major opus 20 – clarinet Charles Draper; horn Franz Paersch; bassoon Mr Cordwell; violin Josef Joachim; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Paul Ludwig; double bass O Bedall*
• Haydn variations on The Austrian Hymn – violins Josef Joachim, Paul David; viola Josef Ludwig; cello Paul Ludwig

Charles Draper (1869-1952) was described as the grandfather of English clarinetists. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Henry Lazarus and Julian Egerton. He premiered Stanford’s Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Sonata. Draper was also a notable teacher at the Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music, and Guildhall School of Music.
Franz Paersch (1857-1921) studied in Leipzig with Friedrich Gumpert. He immigrated to England in 1882 and became first horn with the Hallé Orchestra (1883-1915) and taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music. Paersch’s tone was reported to be superb and his playing fantastically accurate; he is said to have never missed a note.
Mr Cordwell played in chamber groups across the English Midlands in the 1890s.
O Bedall* was an assistant music teacher at Uppingham School from 1895 to 1915. He had studied in Munich.

14. 5 April 1898

The Joachim Quartette – violins Josef Joachim, Johann Kruse; viola Emmanuel Wirth; cello Robert Hausmann

• Brahms string quartet in B-flat major opus 67
• Beethoven string quartet no 10 in E-flat major opus 74
• Schubert string quartet no 14 in D minor – 2^nd and 4^th movements

Johann Kruse (1859-1927), an Australian of German origin, studied under Josef Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule. He soon won repute as one of Joachim’s foremost pupils and after a successful début was hailed as ‘Joachim Secundus’. He became principal violinist and sub-conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Society. In 1892 he joined the Joachim Quartet as second violin.
Emmanuel Wirth (1842-1923) – or Emanuel Wirth – was Bohemian. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and then became concertmaster of the opera orchestra in Rotterdam. He later taught at the Berlin Hochschule as Josef Joachim’s assistant and played viola in the Joachim Quartet. The 1713 Stradivarius violin he played now bears his name.
Robert Hausmann (1852-1909) was a notable German cellist. He was also a teacher and a minor composer. He had been one of the first pupils of the Berlin Hochschule where he studied under Wilhelm Müller and Josef Joachim. Joachim introduced him to Alfredo Piatti, who taught him in London and in Italy. He joined the Joachim Quartet in 1878. Stanford wrote a Cello Concerto in D minor for him, and Brahms and Bruch dedicated compositions. He played a 1724 Stradivarius cello which is still known as the “Hausmann”.

15. 28 March 1899

• Beethoven string quartet no 9 in C-major opus 59 no 3 – violins Josef Joachim, Josef Ludwig; viola Paul David; cello Paul Ludwig
• Mozart violin concerto no 5 K219
• Brahms/Joachim Hungarian Dances no 2 in D minor & no 6 in D-flat major

16. 23 May 1905

• Beethoven violin concerto in D major opus 61
• Beethoven romance for violin and orchestra no 1 in G major opus 40
• An unreported violin solo, probably as an encore

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Malcolm Tozer taught at Uppingham School from 1966 to 1989. For more on David, Joachim and Uppingham School, see Malcolm Tozer, The Ideal of Manliness: the legacy of Thring’s Uppingham (Sunnyrest Books, Truro, 2015). The David Concert Room and Gymnasium is now the school’s theatre.

The author thanks Jerry Rudman, the archivist at Uppingham School, for his help with this research.