Non-PC HIP

[verismissimo]

Listening to Raymond Leppard's "realisation" of Cavalli's La Calisto from Glyndebourne 1972 with Janet Baker, Ileana Cotrubas, James Bowman etc.

Glorious!

How much are we missing in these PC-HIP days?

[Flosshilde]

Much the same as we missed with Leppard's re-orchestrations.


& you obviously aren't missing anything, as you can still listen to it thanks to recordings (I think there's a video/DVD as well, so you can see it too)

[aeolium]

And I love Leppard's recording of Ariodante, from 1980, also with Janet Baker and James Bowman plus Edith Mathis, Norma Burrowes and Samuel Ramey - what a cast. Yet I seem to recall that Leppard took an awful lot of flak from authenticists about his early music recordings.

[vinteuil]

... o, I can enjoy Leppard's "colourful" approach from time to time - in the same way that I can enjoy Stokowski's Bach. But I'm always very conscious that it's a Leppard-Cavalli, a Leppard-Monteverdi, a Leppard-Handel, just as it is a Stokowski-Bach...

[aeolium]

But I'm always very conscious that it's a Leppard-Cavalli, a Leppard-Monteverdi, a Leppard-Handel, just as it is a Stokowski-Bach...

I find quite a few authenticists, for instance Harnoncourt, Jacobs and Gardner, impose their own personality just as strongly on the music they perform. The idea that you can have a neutral, 'objective' interpretation - and that this kind of interpretation would necessarily resemble the way the music was performed at the time - seems to me illusory.

[vinteuil]

I of course agree that there is no such thing as an 'objective' interpretation. And I agree that Harnoncourcourt, Gardiner, and the others clearly shape their interpretations in a way that is very 'personal'.

But Leppard is a bit different. His orchestral imagination allowed him to 'take liberties' in a way that can be enjoyable, but which is (to my ears)sometimes more Leppard than Handel (and I know I can't know what Handel sounded like... )

[Flosshilde]

Of course a conductor 'imposes' (not how I would put it) his/her own personality, but it wasn't so much his personality with Leppard, as a wholesale re-orchestration - & a degree of re-writing, I think.

[Tony Halstead]

I find quite a few authenticists, for instance Harnoncourt, Jacobs and Gardner, impose their own personality just as strongly on the music they perform. The idea that you can have a neutral, 'objective' interpretation - and that this kind of interpretation would necessarily resemble the way the music was performed at the time - seems to me illusory.

I agree that it's illusory to believe that a neutral, objective performance ( therefore not an 'interpretation' as such) would necessarily resemble the way that the music was first performed. What is NOT illusory, however, is that Christopher Hogwood, probably alone among HIPP conductors, has, throughout his long and distinguished career, always meticulously pursued the ideal of an objective, historically-informed performance.
No unnecessary fussing, minimum 'personal intervention', controversial maybe, but always musically refreshing.

[aeolium]

Of course a conductor 'imposes' (not how I would put it) his/her own personality, but it wasn't so much his personality with Leppard, as a wholesale re-orchestration - & a degree of re-writing, I think.

I don't recall that happening with Leppard's recording of Ariodante, though stand to be corrected. I don't know the Cavalli.

[verismissimo]

What is NOT illusory, however, is that Christopher Hogwood, probably alone among HIPP conductors, has, throughout his long and distinguished career, always meticulously pursued the ideal of an objective, historically-informed performance.
No unnecessary fussing, minimum 'personal intervention', controversial maybe, but always musically refreshing.

Absolutely love AAM/Hogwood/Schroder's Mozart symphonies, waldhorn. Did you play on them?

Love Beecham's too!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I agree that it's illusory to believe that a neutral, objective performance ( therefore not an 'interpretation' as such) would necessarily resemble the way that the music was first performed. What is NOT illusory, however, is that Christopher Hogwood, probably alone among HIPP conductors, has, throughout his long and distinguished career, always meticulously pursued the ideal of an objective, historically-informed performance.
No unnecessary fussing, minimum 'personal intervention', controversial maybe, but always musically refreshing.

What about his Mozart on clavichord recording?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I agree that it's illusory to believe that a neutral, objective performance ( therefore not an 'interpretation' as such) would necessarily resemble the way that the music was first performed. What is NOT illusory, however, is that Christopher Hogwood, probably alone among HIPP conductors, has, throughout his long and distinguished career, always meticulously pursued the ideal of an objective, historically-informed performance.
No unnecessary fussing, minimum 'personal intervention', controversial maybe, but always musically refreshing.

What about his Mozart on clavichord recording?

[Tony Halstead]

What about his Mozart on clavichord recording?

Yes, lovely playing not only on a Hass clavichord from 1761 but also on Mozart's own clavichord, the very one that he used for composing!

[John Shelton]

Yes, lovely playing not only on a Hass clavichord from 1761 but also on Mozart's own clavichord, the very one that he used for composing!

If EA would like a postcard he can buy one here http://www.mozarthaus.biz/default.as...tcards/0028438 (I use mine as a bookmark. The postcard that is. Not a clavichord).

[Tony Halstead]

I don't recall that happening with Leppard's recording of Ariodante, though stand to be corrected. I don't know the Cavalli.

Mr Leppard certainly didn't do any re-orchestrating or other tinkering with 'Ariodante' on that recording (Philips, Wembley Town Hall, mid-1970s).
I was there - certainly for the numbers involving horns ( with valves of course ) and I don't have any memory of playing anything other than Handel's original scoring.
As has already been noted, the singers were superb.