Christopher Hogwood | |
|---|---|
 Hogwood leading rehearsals for his finalGresham College lecture in 2014 | |
| Born | Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood (1941-09-10)10 September 1941 Nottingham,Nottinghamshire, England |
| Died | 24 September 2014(2014-09-24) (aged 73) Cambridge,Cambridgeshire, England |
| Occupations | |
| Organization | Academy of Ancient Music |
Christopher Jarvis Haley HogwoodCBE (10 September 1941 – 24 September 2014) was an Englishconductor,harpsichordist, andmusicologist. Founder of theearly music ensemble theAcademy of Ancient Music, he was an authority onhistorically informed performance and a leading figure in theearly music revival of the late 20th century.
Born inNottingham, Hogwood went toThe Skinners' School,Royal Tunbridge Wells, and then studied Music andClassics atPembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1964. Contemporaries at Cambridge includedDavid Munrow andJohn Turner. He went on to study performance and conducting underRaymond Leppard, Mary Potts andThurston Dart, and later withRafael Puyana andGustav Leonhardt. He also studied inPrague withZuzana Ruzickova for a year, under aBritish Council scholarship.[1][2][dead link]
In 1967, Hogwood co-founded theEarly Music Consort with David Munrow. In 1973 he founded theAcademy of Ancient Music, which specializes in performances of Baroque and Classical music usingperiod instruments.[1] The Early Music Consort was disbanded following Munrow's death in 1976, but Hogwood continued to perform and record with the Academy of Ancient Music.
Beginning in 1979, Hogwood and the academy recorded the first cycle ofMozart's symphonies to be performed on period instruments, with Hogwood in the role ofcontinuist. In 1985, Hogwood's recording of Vivaldi'sThe Four Seasons onL'Oiseau-Lyre, which rubbed shoulders in the pop charts withPrince'sPurple Rain; the latter was named best film soundtrack at theBrit Awards, while Hogwood's disc was best classical recording.[3]
From 1981, Hogwood conducted regularly in theUnited States. He wasArtistic Director ofBoston'sHandel and Haydn Society from 1986 to 2001, and for the remainder of his life held the title of Conductor Laureate. From 1983 to 1985 he was artistic director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in theBarbican Centre in London. From 1988 to 1992, he was musical director of theSaint Paul Chamber Orchestra inMinnesota.[1]
In 1994 he conducted the Handel and Haydn Society in a recreation of theconcert that premiered Beethoven'sSixth andFifth symphonies for the Historic Keyboard Society of Milwaukee.[4]
Hogwood conducted a considerable amount of opera. He made his operatic debut in 1983, conducting Mozart'sDon Giovanni inSt. Louis,Missouri.[1] He worked withBerlin State Opera;La Scala, Milan;Royal Swedish Opera; theRoyal Opera House atCovent Garden, Chorégies d'Orange andHouston Grand Opera. WithOpera Australia, he performed Mozart operas,Idomeneo in 1994 andLa clemenza di Tito in 1997. In 2009, he returned to theRoyal Opera House to conduct theOrchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Purcell'sDido and Aeneas, and Handel'sAcis and Galatea. 2009 also saw him conducting Stravinsky'sThe Rake's Progress at theTeatro Real in Madrid, in a production directed byRobert Lepage. In late 2010 and early 2011, he conducted a series of performances of Mozart'sLe nozze di Figaro at theZurich Opera House.
On 1 September 2006, harpsichordistRichard Egarr succeeded Hogwood as Music Director of theAcademy of Ancient Music and Hogwood assumed the title ofEmeritus Director. Hogwood said he expected to conduct 'at least one major project' with the academy each year. He conducted them in a series of concert performances ofHandel operas which began in 2007 withAmadigi di Gaula. 2008 saw performances ofFlavio, and the series concluded in May 2009, the Handel anniversary, withArianna in Creta. In 2013 he conductedImeneo.[5]
Although Hogwood was best known for thebaroque andclassical repertoire, he also performedromantic andcontemporary music, with a particular affinity for the neobaroque andneoclassical schools including many works byStravinsky,Martinů andHindemith.[1]
He made many solo recordings of harpsichord works (includingLouis Couperin,J. S. Bach,Thomas Arne,William Byrd'sMy Ladye Nevells Booke), and did much to promote theclavichord in theSecret Bach/Handel/Mozart series of recordings, which puts in historical context the most common domestic instrument of that epoch. He owned a collection of historical keyboard instruments.[6]
In July 2010, he was appointedProfessor of Music atGresham College, London, a position originally held byJohn Bull.[7] In this role he delivered four series of free public lectures onAspects of Authenticity (2010–11),The Making of a Masterpiece (2011–12),European Capitals of Music (2012–13)[8] andMusic in Context (2013–14).[9] He was unable to deliver all of his lectures during his final year of appointment due to illness and it was only seven months after his final lecture at the college that he died.[10]
In 2011 Hogwood was a juror for the Westfield International Fortepiano Competition hosted atCornell University. This was the first fortepiano competition in the United States and only the second competition of its kind in the world.[11] In 2012 he was appointed Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, for a six-year term of office. He was a member ofLowell House Senior Common Room inHarvard University.[citation needed]
Hogwood's editing work included music by composers as diverse asJohn Dowland andFelix Mendelssohn. After John Walsh's collectionThe Harpsichord Master Book I was rediscovered in New Zealand in 1977 (containing two otherwise new/unknown works by Purcell), Hogwood edited the re-issue on Oxford University Press reissue in 1980.[12][13] He was the chairman of the new editionCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, which aimed to publish a complete edition ofC.P.E. Bach's music in 2014.[14]
He was involved with The Wranitzky Project, dedicated to the study and publishing of the music of Moravian composerPaul Wranitzky (1756–1808).[15] His last editing project was a complete critical edition of piano sonatas by the Czech composerLeopold Koželuch.[16]
In 2012 Hogwood's musicological activities came to the attention of a wider public when the BBC and theGuardian newspaper announced his discovery of a "previously unknown" piano piece byJohannes Brahms.[17][18] However, it emerged that the work in question, entitledAlbumblatt, was already known. The manuscript had been sold at public auction in April 2011, where it was described as "unpublished" and "of great importance," and the manuscript was reproduced in full in the catalogue.[19] The work had been given its premiere by Craig Sheppard on 28 April 2011.[20] Sheppard reportedly described the claim that Hogwood discovered the work as "fatuous".[21] However, Hogwood was involved in the publication of the piece by editing it forBärenreiter. The Albumblatt was published in February 2012 along with a more substantial work, theHorn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40, to which it is thematically related.[22]
Hogwood died inCambridge on 24 September 2014, fourteen days after his 73rd birthday, from abrain tumour.[23] Shortly before his death, he had separated from hiscivil partner, the film directorAnthony Fabian.[24][3]
In 1989 Hogwood was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
He was a recipient of the HalleHandel Prize in 2008.[25] In 2011 he was awarded the IRC Harrison Medal of theSociety for Musicology in Ireland.[26]
At the time of his death, Hogwood was Honorary Professor of Music in theUniversity of Cambridge, Consultant Visiting Professor of Historical Performance in theRoyal Academy of Music and Visiting Professor of Music atKing's College London. He was Honorary Fellow of bothJesus College, Cambridge andPembroke College, Cambridge.
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Hogwood's Mozart recordings were widely acclaimed, and his interpretations of Mozart's symphonies,Requiem andLa clemenza di Tito were all nominated forGrammy Awards, from 1982 to 1996.[28]
| Cultural offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by no predecessor | Music Director, Academy of Ancient Music 1973–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Music Director, Handel and Haydn Society 1986–2001 | Succeeded by |
