John Francis Barnett

He obtained a Queen's Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 1849 studying under William Sterndale Bennett and developing into an accomplished pianist.

[1] His teachers at the Conservatoire in Leipzig were the great pianist Ignaz Moscheles (who had been a pupil of Beethoven), Moritz Hauptmann, Julius Rietz and Louis Plaidy.

Returning to London in 1860, Barnett enjoyed a successful career as a pianist for some years but concentrated increasingly on composition and teaching.

Barnett became noticed as a composer with his Symphony in A minor (1864), and followed this with a number of large-scale works: his cantatas The Ancient Mariner and Paradise and the Peri were first performed at the 1867 and 1870 Birmingham Festivals respectively, whilst his oratorio The Raising of Lazarus was first performed at a New Philharmonic Society concert in 1873, being repeated at the 1876 Three Choirs Festival held that year in Hereford.

At the performance of Barnett's completion, Schubert's original autograph sketch, which was owned by Grove (who had obtained it through Mendelssohn's brother Paul, who in turn had obtained it from Schubert's brother Ferdinand), was proudly displayed in the Central Transept of the Crystal Palace.

[6] Barnett recalled how, when he had only completed his version of the first movement, Schubert's manuscript sketch was almost lost forever when Grove and W. S. Rockstro left it on a train.

Autograph scores of The Building of the Ship, the Missa de angelis, Overture symphonique, The Winter's Tale and two unspecified "orchestral pieces" are held by the Library of the Royal College of Music, London (Add.Mss 4239–4242) together with The Ancient Mariner, Paradise and the Peri, The Raising of Lazarus, The Wishing-Bell and The Eve of St Agnes (Add.Mss 5033a-g).