Early music ensembles, modern orchestras

“I find it fascinating how in the Netherlands, for example, the Early Music movement has been influencing the modern orchestras.

When Frans Brüggen was protesting at concert halls – saying that their interpretations of Mozart are lies – the connection between these two streams of thinking was not happening yet. And since then, as we see today in most Dutch orchestras, they use much less vibrato in 18th century repertoire than orchestras of most other countries, especially those outside of Europe.

This has been a formative part of modern Dutch culture; that the Early Music movement has had an equivalent place in society as modern performance practice, at least from my non-European perspective. Outside of Europe, in countries which are physically and population-wise far larger than European countries, Early Music and perfor-mance practice as still seen as a sort of fringe thing, which is a shame.”

LUÍS TASSO ATHAYDE SANTOS

“It is a paradox that we have also come to work with modern ensembles, equipped with metal strings and modern instruments, playing Early Music, while adhering to all the principles of historically informed performance.

One example is the Resonanz ensemble in Hamburg: they perform Mozart’s Symphonies on modern instruments, with the exception of the horns. They were able to undertake this approach through their collaboration with Riccardo Minasi – a conductor who has mastered historically informed practices with such insight that he imparts it to the musicians, discussing theatre, rhetoric, and everything that brings this music to life.

The fact that today, so-called ‘conventional’ orchestras can once again confront a repertoire they were increasingly hesitant to approach is quite fascinating. And even more fascinating because we are certain of one thing: total authenticity is an unattainable ideal, a pure fantasy.”

CHRISTIAN GIRARDIN

“What we have gained tremendously is that in any conservatory, you can discover Early Music as a child. That wasn’t the case in my time; we only had standard, modern instruments. I don’t know where you had to go – to Paris? – to come across a harpsichord, but it wasn’t easy.

[…] What I liked in my time was having an association of music lovers with parents who lent a hand, and young adults who sang in the children’s choir, took charge of their concert season, programs, organisation, etc. Now, as a child in the Vosges, you have to go through a conservatory to sing in the conservatory’s children’s choir.

[…] What we gained in conservatories with plenty of choices for Early Music now, we lost in the network of Pueri Cantores or children’s choirs, which, when they no longer have the support of an educational or religious structure, cease to exist. Because it exhausted local resources, we also lost this local history, as they have in Germanic countries, with choral societies, village music societies

[…] We would have to start from scratch, rebuild them, find subsidies, premises, support, and recruit people. Because it requires a lot of investment, and people no longer want to do it [voluntarily]. There is what is needed in conservatories, so it is considered that we entrust it to the conservatories. And for me, it was not at all the same project, nor the same flavour. Frankly, if I were a child in the Vosges now, I think I wouldn’t have this openness. I wouldn’t have followed the same path.”

LUCILE RICHARDOT

“We need history because we need rest: a pause to rest our consciousness, so that the possibility of a consciousness may remain – as the seat not only of thought, but also of practical reason, affording full latitude for action.

Saving the past, saving time from the frenzy of the present: the poets devote themselves with exactitude to this.”

PATRICK BOUCHERON