Historically informed

The concept of historically informed performances, as they were once delivered in Britain,  began for many  of us in the nineteen-seventies with what could more accurately be described as historically inept performances.

Everybody seemed to be at it, scraping away as though their lives depended on it.  These performances were given, in the first place, by ensembles which had previously played normally before deciding that they really did not want to. They now desired but failed failing to make the sort of sounds originally produced by players in performances directed by Bach or Mozart. Mostly  it sounded like music played rather fast but very feebly.   Then Christopher Hogwood came along and formed theAcademy ofAncient Music  - a whimsical name rather too reminiscent of the world of Gerard Hoffnung - and incompetence was transformed into brilliance.

But on Wednesday, at his home in Cambridge, Hogwood died. We shall miss him. He was a familiar figure in Edinburgh, one of a growing number of authenticists who included David Munrow, Roger Norrington, and John Eliot Gardiner, conducting or directing performances from the harpsichord or some other instrument or simply with their hands.

Being interviewed in public by music critics (including me on one occasion at the Festival Theatre) was something Hogwood appeared to welcome. Though deeply academic, he was an affable man who did not behave too academically in public. He was brisk and alert, the very model of of an elegant, dapper musician who knew his Mozart from his Haydn,and his Handel from his Bach.

By today’s musical standards, 73 was  too young to die. He was due to visit  Scotland again  next year to conduct the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in what would have been an exhilarating account of Haydn’s Creation. No doubt he will be replaced by Richard Egarr, who succeeded him a few years ago as conductor of  the Academy of Ancient Music. He works frequently with the SCO, but it will not be quite the same as having the spruce master himself.
26 September 2014