CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD

Shorter

“His name is a byword for excellence of playing and quality of supporting scholarship” – BBC Music Magazine

Christopher Hogwood, distinguished conductor, keyboardist and musicologist, is one of the greatest proponents of the early music movement, as well as a renowned conductor of nineteenth and twentieth-century works. Emeritus Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, the orchestra he founded in 1973 and with whom he has a critically acclaimed catalogue of over 200 recordings, Hogwood is currently conducting a series of rarely performed Handel operas in concert with Flavio this spring. In addition he is Conductor Laureate of Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society and continues to be a regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies including Tonhalle Zurich, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Athens Camerata. This season he also conducts the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Opera and Bremer Philharmoniker.

Hogwood began his career as a keyboardist and has been a major force in the revolution that has forever changed the way music is performed, recorded and heard. Based on the principle of discovering and, where possible, recreating the composer’s intentions, his approach begins with musicology – going back to the original sources, correcting published errors and tracking subsequent changes. His repertoire ranges from mediaeval to contemporary music, but with a particularly affinity for Haydn and Handel and in twentieth-century music, for the neo-baroque and neo-classical schools. His current editorial work varies from the great overtures and symphonies by Mendelssohn to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and from Stravinsky and Martinu to unusual versions of music by Haydn and Mozart.

Hogwood’s celebrated catalogue of recordings with AAM for Decca includes the complete Mozart and Beethoven symphonies on period instruments. Other current projects range from the series of neo-classical works on Sony/BMG’s Arte Nova label with Kammerorchester Basel, to the “thrilling and revealing” Secret series for clavichord and Martinu’s complete works for violin and orchestra on Hyperion.

Hogwood’s many publications include a survey of patronage through the ages (Music at Court) and biographical studies of Haydn and Mozart. His book, Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, was recently published by Cambridge University Press and a revised edition of his classic Handel biography was issued in 2007. His written work has been translated into many languages. For his unique contribution to Handel – performance, editing, recording and writing – Hogwood is this year's recipient of the Halle Handel Prize. He is also Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Visit www.hogwood.org for further information.

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PRESS HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT PROJECTS

CONDUCTING

Leipzig Opera - Mozart - "La Clemenza di Tito" - January 2008
"In conductor Christopher Hogwood, Mozart has an expert, precise and skilled interpreter at his disposal."
Sächsiche Zeitung, January 2008

Tonhalle Orchester - Schumann - Manfred and Symphony No.3 - Zurich Festspiele - June 2007
"Hogwood’s interpretation moved in a triangle of elegance, natural flow and dance-like brilliance."
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2007

Academy of Ancient Music – Handel “Amadigi” – Birmingham Symphony Hall – May 2007
"The first star was Christopher Hogwood, one of the most technically correct conductors around. He has a very clear beat, no awkward mannerisms, graceful and flowing movements that help to make him an attractive conductor to watch, and an overall feeling that he is serving the music, rather than attempting to get the music to serve him. What joy!"
Early Music Review, Aug 2007

Dido and Aeneas – La Scala, Milan – July 2006
“Christopher Hogwood.. offered an interpretation of Dido and Aeneas that was delicate, light as embroidery and diamond-like in its sharpness and clarity of sound.”
L’Opera, Aug 2006

RECORDINGS

Martinu - The complete music for violin and orchestra Vol. 2 - Hyperion CDA67672 - February 2008
"Christopher Hogwood has developed into an outstanding Martinu interpreter and the performances are first-class"
International Record Review, February 2008

Martinu – The complete music for violin and orchestra Vol. 1 - Hyperion CDA67671 - October 2007
“This disc is an utter delight from start to finish”
Gramophone

Secret Mozart – Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 82876 83288-2 – August 2006
“Hogwood is such a subtle and skilful artist that just to hear his musical thoughts on Mozart’s keyboard works is a privilege. As befits the instruments, he takes a measured and respectful view of the works, only lightly ornamenting them on occasion.”
International Record Review, October 2006

PUBLICATIONS

HANDEL – Christopher Hogwood – Thames and Hudson – May 2007
“A thorough and excellent guide to the life and works of the great man”
The Sunday Times

Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks - CUP - 2005
‘.. it is almost everything one could wish for in a monograph: succinct, well written, effortlessly au fait with the work of current musicologists, massively informative, able to convey affection for the man and his music, generously illustrated with well selected examples, sprinkled with good aperçus, authoritative on the political and other contexts, well produced and above all musical in focus. Hogwood treats music as music, a musician as a musician, and what a relief that is!’...
The Musical Times (Peter Williams), Summer 2006