CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD
Christopher Hogwood conducts repertoire ranging from the baroque to contemporary, always with the prevailing philosophy of revealing the original sound-world of the composer. Since founding The Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, he has gained international recognition for his performances of baroque and early classical repertoire with period instruments. For more than forty years he has also been performing music of the twentieth century, with a particular affinity for the neo-baroque and neoclassical schools including many works by Stravinsky, Martinu and Entartete composers. With modern symphony and chamber orchestras he creates intriguing juxtapositions of the new and the old (Tippett and Corelli, Schoenberg and Handel, Webern and Bach) and has directed premieres of works by European and American composers. He is particularly interested in Czech music and was awarded the Martinu Medal by the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation, Prague, in 1999. He has also encouraged The Academy of Ancient Music to commission contemporary pieces, with some considerable successes with works by John Tavener, David Bedford and John Woolrich.
In addition to his position as Director of The AAM, he continues as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and the Kammerorchester Basel; he is Conductor Laureate of Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society. Other engagements this season include the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Orchestra della Toscana, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestra Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Residentie Orkest, and the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice. In opera he has worked with Opera Australia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Opera Stockholm, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Chorégies d’Orange and Houston Grand Opera.
Hogwood has a celebrated catalogue of more than 200 recordings with The AAM for Decca, including the first complete Mozart symphonies on period instruments. His recent projects range from the symphonies and overtures of Niels Gade with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Chandos) to the Secret Bach, the first in a series of baroque and classical music for clavichord (Metronome). Czech music and the Czech Philharmonic are represented by three of Martinu’s jazz ballets recently released on Supraphon and all his works for solo violin and orchestra with Bohuslav Matousek as soloist. On Oehms Classics the viola concertos of Hoffmeister with soloist Ashan Pillai demonstrate the byways of the classical period, with the neoclassical well represented in a series of recordings with the Kammerorchester Basel on the Arte Nova label including works by Martinu, Stravinsky, Honegger, Britten, Tippett, Malipiero and Casella.
The connection between the worlds of musicology and performance is important to Hogwood; with as many as possible of his editorial projects he covers the ground from initial research through to performance or recording. Among his current editing projects are the original version of Martinu’s La Revue de Cuisine which he has recorded with the Czech Philharmonic, Mendelssohn’s seven great concert overtures, Haydn’s London symphonies arranged for flute and string quartet by Johann Peter Salomon, Purcell’s keyboard music and keyboard music from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book for Musica Britannica. A collection of seventeenth-century English keyboard music has recently been published by Edition HH.
Hogwood’s many publications include a survey of patronage through the ages (Music at Court), biographical studies of Haydn, Mozart and Handel (Thames and Hudson), a history of the trio sonata (BBC Publications), investigations of British music and many editions of keyboard and orchestral music from the sixteenth century onwards. His writings have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.
Hogwood’s academic positions include Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge; Fellowships at Jesus and Pembroke Colleges, Cambridge; Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and regular work at Harvard University. Visit www.hogwood.org for further information on Christopher Hogwood and his work.
