Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the performances, compositions, and critical reception of Joseph Joachim in Victorian England in order to examine how sentimentalism works across private and public spaces, from the musical taste and manners of those who heard him play at society parties to those who furrowed their brows to his concerto performances in temple-like concert halls. It focuses in Joachim's salon activity the second moves to consider sentimental aspects of the form and content in the big concert works with which Joachim was identified as a distinguished interpreter – the concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Bruch. The book explores sentimental character as it is developed in two musical genres. It explores the relationship of sentimentalism with psychologies of anxiety and desire, first with those of masochism and second with those of memory.