Christopher Hogwood is an irreplaceable figure in a marvelous period that spans over thirty years, the time of the rebirth of the ancient and baroque repertoire: a time of so-called performances with original instruments, as they were hastily defined in an urge to simplify. A period in which, amid the initial skepticism of the critics and their subsequent appreciation, important artists and philologists restored to music lovers the joy of rediscovering masterpieces that had often been forgotten and performing practices that had long been abandoned, recreating enormous interest in a repertoire that is still continuing to reveal the existence of great forgotten musical treasures.
Thanks to this movement, the program of music associations and opera theaters are now very different from the past. It was a period in which artists such as Hogwood, Gardiner, Brueggen, Harnoncourt, Savall and Pickett to name only a few seemed almost to compete and surpass each other in a constant succession of new discoveries and worlds first recordings. Yet really the only competition was in the minds of the public, who often split into factions that did not always have a proper raison d être, in favor of one performer or another.
It is a fact that the studies, recordings and activities of these great musicians have revolutionized public taste. Indeed, some particularly bold individuals, who with hindsight may seem to have gone too far in their performances, were nevertheless useful in sparking off discussions and debates and deeper studies.
Those who were acquainted with Christopher Hogwood know how far he was from the performing extremism of which these artists are often and nearly always wrongly accused. It is no coincidence that, like other illustrious colleagues, he also devoted himself to conducting traditional orchestras in the classical and baroque repertoire, always respecting the practices that he had studied so profoundly.
Hogwood will long be remembered also for his research and writings (his book on George Friedrich Handel, to give just one example), as well as for his very carefully prepared critical editions, of baroque and also romantic music (Mendelssohn), which nowadays one can hardly do without.
We wish to remember him also for his passion and enthusiasm. Unfortunately this box set, which is being released only a few months after his death and which was planned in conjunction with him, has not been able to benefit from his illustrative notes, which enhanced previous releases of Haydn and Vivaldi. Mirko Gratton