CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD

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

Christopher Hogwood, once described as “the von Karajan of early music”, is equally active in 19th and 20th-century repertoire. A celebrated conductor, musicologist and keyboard player, his catalogue of over 200 recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music on Decca includes the complete Mozart and Beethoven symphonies. His Secret Handel CD - part of the “thrilling and revealing” series The Secret Clavichord - was recently awarded a Diapason d'Or and a series of neo-classical recordings with Kammerorchester Basel for Sony/BMG was described as “balanced and thought provoking with beautifully pointed and incisively characterised performances”. He has worked with most leading symphony orchestras and opera houses in the world. As a musicologist he covers music from the 16th (Fitzwilliam Virginal Book) to the 20th (Martinu, Elgar, Stravinsky) centuries, and is currently re-editing the overtures and symphonies of Mendelssohn. A revised edition of his classic biography of Handel: “a thorough and excellent guide to the life and works of the great man”, was issued in 2007.

Hogwood is Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. For further information see www.hogwood.org