Kenneth Woods- A View From the Podium

I take a  certain perverse pleasure in the fact that there seems to be widespread confusion on exactly what my take is on Historically Informed Performance.

Of course, my skeptical opinions on some well-known HIP-ster conductors (only one, really) are well documented (perhaps too much so for the good of my career), but I do deploy a lot of natural horns, tend to keep close to LvB’s metronome marks and so on.  I’m dogmatic that one should not vibrate or not vibrate equally on all notes at all times, but not dogmatic about vibrating or not vibrating beyond that.

And I do deeply admire many HIP performers. In fact, just the other day in the car I was so blown away by a performance I had just heard that I was toying with writing a blog post called “Harnoncourt is a Genius.” I still agree with the sentiment, but decided it didn’t merit a whole post.

Not a genius, though, are most pretenders who stand in front of a modern band and ask them to imitate the sound of a period band, or better yet, the recording of a famous HIP conductor. Not long ago, I actually heard a conductor (with a great career) tell the trumpets and timps of a modern band that he wanted a “sound like Harnoncourt.”

I think it’s absolutely great that modern orchestras, particularly British ones, are so adept at all kinds of performance practice techniques. It is wonderful, and important, that symphony orchestras be able to give convincing performances of classical and baroque repertoire. However, simply imitating period instruments on modern ones does create some dangers, which you have to compensate for.

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A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts balance, Beeethoven Symphonies, harmony, harnoncourt, hip

Thanks to Sven from Brainerd for sending us a collated list of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s rep for 2008. I’m a huge Harnoncourt fan, even though he’s as likely to make me scream in horror as cheer in admiration, sometimes in the same piece. Just this weekend I heard his Hallelujah Chorus on Radio 3. It starts so slowly and softly and affectedly that I really couldn’t take it remotely seriously (I didn’t know who I was listening to, which makes it more interesting sometimes- my first reaction to the opening was “whoever this is is a fraud”). However, the performance really took off and came to a thrilling ending, full of fascinating touches and compelling ideas. In the end, it was a vivid example of why he’s one of the most interesting musicians on earth.

Anyway, his is the smallest list so far- less than 30 works, but several operas and even more single-work programs. What I like most about his list is that it seems like a declaration of principles- you can certainly tell which composers he feels most passionately about. I wish I could have heard all the big Schumann works.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt- 2008 Repertoire Report Read more…

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