Roger norrington haydn biography

Prince Consort Professor of Historical Performance

Sir bekräftelse Norrington was born in Oxford, and comes from a musical University family. He was a talented boy soprano, studying the violin from the age of ten and singing from the age of seventeen. He read English Literature at Cambridge University, and spent several years as an amateur violinist, tenor singer, and ledare, before attending the Royal College of Music as a postgraduate student of conducting, studying with Sir Adrian Boult.

In 1962 Sir Roger Norrington founded the Schütz Choir. This marked the beginning of a thirty-year utforskning of historical performance practice. With the choir, he gave many innovative concerts, and made numerous recordings for Argo/Decca, chiefly of 17th- century repertoire. These performances were initially accompanied by the London Baroque players, and later, as Norrington’s explorations moved forward chronologically, bygd the London Classical Players. As Norrington’s interest

•

Program: Conductor Roger Norrington

"There is no such thing as an 'authentic' style. Essentially, it's directly informed performance practice. Every conductor wants to do the music like the composer does. It's just that as the composers get further and further away, and as our styles develop, we simply need to get a bit more basic information."

Witnessing the Australian Chamber Orchestra get a standing ovation on historically informed instruments this week, for their almost all-Beethoven concert with forte pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout playing the 'Emperor' Concerto, reminded me how far we've come in terms of audience's acceptance, even reverence for period instruments and historically informed performances.

A reminder of how much we owe to the movement's pioneering elders, like Sir Roger Norrington who is celebrating his 90th birthday this month.

When Norrington first began evangelising for "authentic" perfo

•

"You take the doubt with you in a closely sealed suitcase" – Roger Norrington Interview

One of many remarkable things you learn talking to Sir Roger Norrington is how little this apparent iconoclast has changed his views over the decades. It's some 35 years since he started releasing his groundbreaking cycle of Beethoven symphonies – not the first on period instruments, but arguably one of the most influential series of recordings ever made – but the ideas and decisions that informed the venture have barely changed. 

When he came to re-record the works in Stuttgart some 15 years later, he recalls being asked: "What's going to be your new take on Beethoven?" The answer, he tells me, was: "just the same as before!" He elaborates: "If you've found out everything you found out about how this should go, you don't have to change it. You don't have to have a brand new philosophy every time you perform it. So of course the tempi