Full Biography

Christopher Hogwood is one of the most influential proponents of the historically informed early-music movement, and is equally passionate about music of the 19th and 20th centuries. He applies the same rigour and supreme musicianship to all his work, discovering and, as far as possible, recreating the composer’s intentions both in notation and performance.

BBC Music Magazine has been unstinting in its praise: “His name is a byword for excellence of playing and quality of supporting scholarship”.

This year marks the anniversaries of Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Martinů - all composers close to Hogwood’s heart - and his work is central to a number of celebratory projects across Europe, The Far East and the UK. The festivities reach a climax with two innovative projects with the Britten Sinfonia and Metropolitan Orchestra, Lisbon featuring in a single evening the work of these composers.

Other highlights of 2009 include Hogwood’s return to London’s Royal Opera House to conduct a double-bill of Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Reporting on his performances of the latter at La Scala, the Italian L’Opera critic wrote: “Christopher Hogwood… offered an interpretation... that was delicate, light as embroidery and diamond-like in its sharpness and clarity of sound.”

Performances of Handel’s rarely performed Arianna with the Academy of Ancient Music follow and coincide with Handel Reveal’d, a special anniversary exhibition curated by Hogwood at the Handel House Museum in London.

Mendelssohn is celebrated in a three-week event with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo where Hogwood conducts his own editions of the orchestral works, an ongoing project for Bärenreiter; he also directs Haydn’s symphonies, concerti and oratorios with the Salzburg Camerata, Austro-Hungarian Orchestra, Karol Szymanowski Orchestra, Cracow and NDR Radiophilharmonie, among others.

Hogwood has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera houses and in addition to Handel and Purcell conducted his first Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Teatro Real, Madrid at the beginning of the year. His performances of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito for Leipzig Opera in January 2008 were acclaimed by the Leipziger-Almanach as ”a highlight of the opera season”. He also returns twice in 2009/10 to the Leipzig Gewandhaus to conduct Schumann’s Scenes from Faust as well as works by Strauss, Mozart and Paganini.

Christopher Hogwood founded the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, and with the orchestra has built up a remarkable discography of more than 200 recordings, many of which have garnered awards, and which include groundbreaking interpretations of the complete Mozart and Beethoven symphonies.

Equally important is his commitment to the neo-classical school, with composers including Martinů, Stravinsky, Britten, Copland, Tippett and Honegger. The final CD in his highly praised series of Martinů’s complete works for violin/viola with Bohuslav Matouöek and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Hyperion) has recently been issued; the first was described by Classicstoday.com as: “The last word in brilliance and idiomatic style”.

Other recording projects include the Secret Series for clavichord – in Secret Mozart (Sony) International Record Review described him as “such a subtle and skilful artist that just to hear his musical thoughts on Mozart’s keyboard works is a privilege”; the series also includes Secret Bach and Secret Handel (Metronome), the latter recently awarded a Diapason d’Or.

Hogwood’s many publications include a survey of patronage through the ages (Music at Court), prize-winning biographical studies of Handel and Mozart, a history of the trio sonata and investigations of British music. His book on Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks was recently published by Cambridge University Press (“everything one could wish for in a monograph”, Musical Times) and a revised edition of his classic study of Haydn in England is being reissued for this year’s anniversary. His written work has been translated into six languages.

Last year Hogwood was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music at the University of Cambridge. He is also the recipient of the Martinů Medal and the Halle Handel Prize.

This year he launches his newest project as General Editor of the new Geminiani Opera Omnia (Ut Orpheus, Bologna). He also sits on the board of the C.P.E. Bach Complete Works Edition, the Martinů Complete Edition, and is working on his next books, The Classical Clavichord, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, the English Virginalists and a history of the picnic.

Visit www.hogwood.org for further information on Christopher Hogwood and his work.