Christopher Hogwood | Early-music conductor, 73
Christopher Hogwood, 73, a British conductor, harpsichordist, and music scholar who became a luminary in the early-music movement of using period instruments and who brought an estimable vigor to classical warhorses, died Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England. The Academy of Ancient Music, the Cambridge orchestra he founded in 1973, announced his death, but did not cite a cause.
Christopher Hogwood, 73, a British conductor, harpsichordist, and music scholar who became a luminary in the early-music movement of using period instruments and who brought an estimable vigor to classical warhorses, died Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England. The Academy of Ancient Music, the Cambridge orchestra he founded in 1973, announced his death, but did not cite a cause.
In a career spanning five decades, Mr. Hogwood gave countless performances and made hundreds of recordings using 17th- and 18th-century instruments. They used gut strings, shorter bows, and lower tuning, causing the music to sound in a different key. But they had "a certain clarity and speed" that Mr. Hogwood felt was lacking in their modern descendants.
His musical portfolio included a much-admired version of Handel's oratorio Messiah from the early 1980s, and recordings of Mozart's and Haydn's symphonies as well as Beethoven's symphonies and piano concertos.
His 1985 LP recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons led to a spot on the British pop charts after he won an award from England's equivalent of the Grammys.
The acclaim helped him build up an already-formidable musical library of historical instruments, including clavichords, spinets, virginals, and fortepianos. - Washington Post