Academy of Ancient Music Brings Bach to Life

In a recent conversation with Tom Battenberg and Timothy Russell after a ProMusica Chamber Orchestra performance, one of the topics was performing Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in Eb on instruments of the day, or 'period instruments.'  An article published by WQXR in New York stated that the purpose of the so-called period instrument movement was "to rediscover how Baroque music might have sounded using original instruments and performance practices." When I asked Tom Battenberg about performing on some of the early trumpets, he recounted one performance which was, in a word, "awful."  It wasn't because the musicians were bad.  Rather, it was because some of those old instruments were incredibly difficult to play well. There are well-documented cases of concerts presented by the likes of Beethoven where a performance would fall apart, pieces would be started over, or the musicians available simply hadn't had time to adequately practice, because the music was even finished until the day of the concert. Over the years, instruments have been perfected to the point that intonation is not the problem it used to be.  As an example, Battenberg pointed out that Anton Weidinger, the trumpeter for whom Haydn wrote his Trumpet Concerto in Eb, had taken his trumpet, which had no keys and could not play a chromatic scale, drilled holes in it, then affixed flute-like keys to it, so he could play that scale. Haydn then wrote his concerto for the new instrument Weidinger had cobbled together. Modern instruments have been redesigned to enable them to be heard in today's much larger auditoriums.  Violins in  Bach's day would have been hard pressed to fill a 3,000-seat theatre.  They are also much easier to keep properly tuned. With that in mind, listening to a performance on instruments which were either made in the time of J.S. Bach, or were built in the same manner, makes hearing his music played well an ever more amazing feat that normal.  Anyone who has ever taken music lessons knows the extraordinary talent and dedication it takes to play classical music well.  Since the weekend is here, you might have a little more time to savor this performance by The Academy of Ancient Music.  It was recorded in Carnegie Hall shortly after the groups founder and long-time director Christopher Hogwood passed away.  Hogwood was one of the driving forces behind the exploration of music played in the manner in which it might have originally been heard. Hear the performance HERE.