ABSTRACT
The two names associated with the formation of a choir to perform the Mass in B minor were Arthur Duke Coleridge, who had the original idea, and Otto Goldschmidt, who conducted the first performances. Goldschmidt was appointed Professor of Pianoforte at the Royal Academy of Music in 1863, becoming Vice-Principal to Sterndale Bennett in 1866. The distinguished music critic John Fuller Maitland, who joined the choir in 1878, knew the Charles Freakes well and casts an amusing light on Eliza's character in his memoirs. Freake was a generous patron of the arts and in 1873 had the building for the National Training School for Music erected at his own expense. In 1882, he donated this to the newly established royal college of Music – a philanthropic gesture for which he received a knighthood. The first performance on 26 April was reviewed in detail by the Musical Times in the June 1876 issue.
