Anne Sofie Von Otter Leads New CD Releases For Spring 2015

English Conductor Christopher Hogwood Dies at 73

Hit Maker: The late conductor made over 200
 recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music.

"Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE (September 10, 1941 – September 24, 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, musicologist and founder of the Academy of Ancient Music. Born in Nottingham, Hogwood studied music and classical literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He went on to study performance and conducting under Raymond Leppard, Mary Potts and Thurston Dart; and later with Rafael Puyana and Gustav Leonhardt. He also studied in Prague with Zuzana Ruzickova for a year, under a British Council scholarship. In 1967, Hogwood founded the Early Music Consort with David Munrow, and in 1973 he founded the Academy of Ancient Music, specializing in performances of Baroque and early Classical music with period instruments. 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. From 1981, Hogwood conducted regularly in the United States. He was Artistic Director of Boston's Handel 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 the Barbican Centre in London. From 1988 to

An early portrait of Christopher Hogwood.

1992, he was musical director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota. Hogwood conducted a considerable amount of opera. He made his operatic debut in 1983, conducting Don Giovanni in St. Louis, Missouri. He worked with Berlin State Opera; La Scala, Milan; Royal Opera Stockholm; the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Chorégies d'Orange and Houston Grand Opera. With Opera Australia, he performed Idomeneo in 1994 and La Clemenza di Tito in 1997. In 2009, he returned to the Royal Opera House to conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and Handel's Acis and Galatea. 2009 also saw him conducting Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at the Teatro Real in Madrid, in a production directed by Robert Lepage. In late 2010 and early 2011, he conducted a series of performances of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at

Constant Collaborators: Soprano Emma Kirby and countertenor
 James Bowman with Maestro Hogwood. 

Zurich Opera House. On September 1, 2006, harpsichordist Richard Egarr succeeded Hogwood as Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music and Hogwood assumed the title of Emeritus Director. Hogwood said he expected to conduct 'at least one major project' with the Academy each year. He conducted the Academy in a series of concert performances of Handel operas which began in 2007 with Amadigi. 2008 saw performances of Flavio, and the series concluded in May 2009, the Handel anniversary, with Arianna in Creta. In 2013 he conducted the Academy in Imeneo. Although Hogwood was best known for the baroque and early classical repertoire, he also performed contemporary music, with a particular affinity for the neo-baroque and neoclassical schools including many works by Stravinsky, Martinů and Hindemith. He made many solo recordings of harpsichord works, including (Louis Couperin, J. S. Bach, Thomas Arne, William Byrd's My Lady Nevells Booke) and did much to promote the clavichord in the Secret Bach/Handel/Mozart series of recordings, which puts in historical context the most

(Photo: Marco Borggreve)

common domestic instrument of that epoch. He owned a collection of historical keyboard instruments. By the end of his life, Hogwood was Honorary Professor of Music in the University of Cambridge, Consultant Visiting Professor of historical performance in the Royal Academy of Music and visiting professor at King's College London. He was an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge and Pembroke College, Cambridge. In July 2010, he was appointed Professor of Music at Gresham College, London, for a four-year term of office. 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 of Lowell House Senior Common Room in Harvard University. In 1989 Hogwood was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was the recipient of the Halle Handel Prize in 2008. In 2011, Hogwood was a juror for the Westfield International Fortepiano Competition hosted at Cornell University. This was the first fortepiano competition in the United States and only the second competition of its kind in the world. Hogwood died in Cambridge on 24 September 2014, aged 73." [Source] Listen to Christopher Hogwood conduct Luba Orgonasova in "Vo'far guerra" from Händel's opera Rinaldo, Emma Kirkby in "But Who May Abide" from Händel's Messiah, and Cecilia Bartoli in "L'anima del filosofo ossia" from Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice, after the jump.

Happy Birthday: Emma Kirkby

This soprano, born February 26, 1949, has been the undisputed queen of early music for the better part of the last century. Possessing a not-quite sizable voice for grand opera, it is perfection for liturgical purposes and her clarion tone has stirred many a stone heart when bursting out Bach, Haydn, Händel, Monteverdi or Mozart. After graduating the Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset she went on to student classics at Oxford. There she discovered her passion for Renaissance and Baroque music after joining the Schola Cantorum. She was a founding member of the Taverner Choir and in 1973 begin her long association with the Consort of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music. She worked hard to form relationships with London Baroque, the Freiburger Barockorchester, L’Orfeo (of Linz), the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Palladian Ensemble and Florilegium. With over 100 recordings to her credit, she has sung everything from Hildegard von Bingen to Amy Beach. In 1999 Kirkby was voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM Radio

(Photo: L'Oiseau-Lyre/Decca)

listeners and in November 2000 she received the Order of the British Empire. BBC Music Magazine in April 2007 published a survey of critics to nominate “The 20 greatest sopranos”, controversially placing Kirkby at #10. On 21 January 2011 it was announced that Dame Emma had been awarded the Queen's Medal for Music, an award funded by the Privy Purse and given to an individual who has had a major influence on the musical life of the nation. The soprano has declared that she enjoys live performances to recording. She married lutenist Anthony Rooley and they have a son together. Top 10 listening suggestions are after the jump.  [Source]