Volume 16 Issue 4 - December 2010

staples I always fall back on are Bach and Monteverdi – and Purcell,and Rameau, and Handel. It depends on the repertoire. For me,Bach is all about sacred music, and Handel is operas, and Mozartis everything. When I’m busy preparing for a performance I’mrehearsal comes, I’ve got it all memorized. So whatever music I’mliving with, it becomes my world. Then after the concert, it mysteriouslyevaporates. It’s strange: I can be completely obsessed with onething for a whole month. Then the last performance happens, I goout and have a beer, and the next morning I wake up and it’s gone.The composers you mentioned are all big names in the canon. Inyour years of working in early music, are there any lesser-knowncomposers who have impressed you? Biber is a wonderful composer– I think most violinists love Biber. Another composer, Schmelzer,is in his shadow a bit, and he doesn’t get his due. We did an entireJohannHeinrichSchmelzer.Historically informed isabout context. It means,“I know a lot about this.” Itdoesn’t mean I’m marriedto the exact reproductionof every detail.CD of the music of Schmelzer. I spent several months completelyimmersed in Schmelzer, and at that time I would have said thatSchmelzer was my favourite composer! Because we did a whole CDof his music, I discovered a whole personality that I didn’t knowa composer’s work, and that’s what we try to do. If you just do onelittle piece by one composer and another little piece by another, youmight not ever crack that nut.And there are various levels of the canon. At the very top youhave Bach and Mozart. Even Handel isn’t up there: even though he’sextremely popular, he’s about a quarter of a millimeter lower on thelist. And the reason I say that is because people compare Handelto Bach, and because he’s not Bach – he’s somebody else, with adifferent personality and aesthetic – they say he’s lesser. What I’vediscovered, more and more, is that composers all have their ownlanguage. I had no idea, until about 15 years ago how, humorousTelemann was. And if you don’t see it that way, it sounds like badBach, or second-rate Handel.I get the sense that amongst musicians who specialize in the baroquethat there’s been a kind of settling of the repertoire. Is the repertoireless adventurous than it was 25 years ago? I agree with that. I thinkwe have to balance the canon, which is worth hearing and peoplewill buy tickets to hear, with adventurous music-making. The senseof adventure we had when we started out is something we need tohold on to.One of the changes in the early music world in the last 25 years hasbeen a move away from the word “authentic” and towards the phrase“historically informed.” In your view, what was that all about? Thereare two reasons why the term “historically informed” has stuck. Ifyou think about the word “authentic,” what’s the opposite? Are youtherefore saying that something else is not real? It’s both insultingand inaccurate. Other terms also have problems. “Early music”implies that it’s music before 1750, and everything else is somethingelse. But it’s not about when the music was written, but about howyou approach the music. “Historically informed” gets around allthat: it’s not about what is or isn’t “authentic,” or when the musicwas written. Historically informed is about context. It means, “IDecember 1, 2010 - February 7, 2011 thewholenote.com 9