[2] After his studies in Leipzig, Rockstro established himself as a teacher of piano and singing in London, and he secured a regular appointment as an accompanist at a recital series.
The Times praised its obvious sincerity but complained of its conspicuous debt to Mendelssohn and its lack of good tunes.
As an editor of music of earlier centuries he was far from scholarly in his changes: The Times commented that his edition of the St Matthew Passion "introduced marks of expression in a wholesale fashion not likely to meet with the approval of purists".
[1] In the original Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Rockstro contributed 240 articles, including those on "Mass", "Monteverdi", "Motet", "Opera", "Oratorio", "Orchestra" and "Plainsong".
Two articles by Rockstro remained, with revisions, in the online edition of Grove at May 2012: those on "Cadence" and "Aevia" (a technical word used in mediaeval service books).