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Baroque Spring

Tom Service explores the changes in the performance of Baroque music over the last 40 years with Christopher Hogwood, Roger Norrington and Reinhard Goebel.

As part of Radio 3's Baroque Spring Tom Service explores the changes in the performance of Baroque music over the last 40 years. From the early days in the 60s and 70s when small groups first started performing this repertoire with historical instruments and performance practice, through to today when the discoveries made by that movement now inform how nearly every professional ensemble approaches these works. Tom talks to some of the early music pioneers from Britain, Europe and America including Christopher Hogwood, Roger Norrington, Reinhard Goebel, René Jacobs, William Christie, Emma Kirkby and Joel Cohen about how they started out and the journey Baroque performance and repertoire has taken over the decades.

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45 minutes

Baroque Performance

As Radio 3’s Baroque Spring Season draws to a close Tom Service explores the changes in the performance and perception of Baroque music over the last 50 years. From the Dutch and British pioneers of the early music movement in the 1960s, through to today, historically informed performance practice has grown from a small band of devotees to a movement which now influences how every professional ensemble approaches the Baroque repertoire.

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Tom talks to three conductors who helped change the course of musical history – Christopher Hogwood founder of The Academy of Ancient Music, Reinhard Goebel who set up Musiqua Antiqua Koln in Germany, and Sir Roger Norrington who created the Schutz Choir and the London Classical Players – about their journey of discovery and the controversies they’ve encountered along the way, about why the movement was essential, and what its impact has been.Ìý And Nicholas Kenyon, one of the early music movement’s most acute observers’, discusses how the wider musical world has reacted to the seismic shift brought on by period performance.

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Plus contributions from soprano Emma Kirkby and conductors William Christie, René Jacobs, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Broadcast

  • Sat 30 Mar 2013 12:15

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