Pioneering period instrument performances: Five key Roger Norrington recordings

The Guardian

2 days ago

It's hard to think of another conductor of recent times who has polarised opinion more sharply than Roger Norrington. On one side were those who admired his indefatigable research into 18th- and 19th-century performance practice, and the ways in which he deployed the results in his work with the period instruments of the London Classical Players, often extending the idea of historically informed performance beyond its then restricted field of the classical era into the orchestral music of Schumann, Berlioz, Brahms and Wagner. On the other side were those who viewed Norrington's 'experiments' as at best eccentric and at worst as profoundly destructive, especially when he carried over those ideas, such as his hatred of string vibrato, into his work with the many traditional symphony orchestras that he conducted throughout his career.
Both those aspects of his conducting life are well represented in the many recordings – well over 100 - that Norrington made. Another significant aspect of his work, as an opera conductor (especially in the 1970s and early 1980s with Britain's first regional opera company, Kent Opera, of which he was the founding music director) is less well represented however and in this selection of Norrington's recordings, the Don Giovanni, a later product, has to stand for that important contribution.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony – London Classical Players (1987)
Norrington's cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, overtures and concertos, all recorded on the period instruments of the London Classical Players is perhaps the best known of all his recording ventures.
Wagner Overtures - London Classical Players (1990)
Even today period-instrument performances of Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler are not exactly commonplace, but when Norrington made his pioneering recordings in the 1990s they really were unexplored territory.
Mozart's Don Giovanni – London Classical Players (1993)
Norrington's two Mozart sets with the London Classical Players – this Don Giovanni and a Zauberflöte released the following year, were very much trail-blazers when they were recorded over three decades ago.
Vaughan Williams's London Symphony – London Philharmonic Orchestra (2000)
British music was another of Norrington's enthusiasms, and his cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies, as well as recordings of Elgar, were much admired.
Mahler's Symphony No 5 – SWR Radio Symphony Stuttgart (2006)
From 1998 to 2011 Norrington was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio orchestra, and made a whole range of recordings of mainstream repertoire with it, including a complete Mahler cycle.
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique – Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (2013)
The London Classical Players were dissolved in 1997 and its dates taken over by the OAE, with which Norrington continued to appear occasionally until he retired in 2021.