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Berner, Irmgard

Specialised ensembles

Ensembles and masters of early music are filling concert halls

Category: Essay
Das Orchester 05/2008, Page 26

Early music has long been a controversial topic. From Mendelssohn Bartholdy's rediscovery of Bach to Harnoncourt's campaigns in the 1970s, it took 150 years to establish the historically informed performance. Today, however, over once deeply entrenched positions musicians of all shades appear to share ideas and styles. Yet conviction is still often necessary when musicians try to broaden their style into historical practice. It is largely neglected in academic teaching, and colleagues are sometimes hard to convince – a pity, as it may help to sharpen sound perception and improve posture. On the other hand, Alessandro de Marchi, chief conductor of the Academia Montis Regalis, argues that today most ensembles are open for new experiences with early music. Competence, a coherent artistic concept and enthusiasm – combined with a few didactic tricks – are the main factors to quickly coach classical ensembles. Though, as Matthias Foremny, director of music at the Mecklenburg Staatstheater Schwerin, points out, baroque scores require a great deal of preparation on the director's part. Yet he, too, believes that historical practice can hone general musical skills. However, whether this trend will prevail in the long term seems dubious, according to the article by Karin Erichsen. For sure, historical practice has changed the sound of many renowned ensembles, it has changed the music market and it is part of many festivals. Yet a counter movement is already noticeable. Even so, many ensembles now require skills in historical practice of their young musicians, as Irmgard Berner argues. The range of courses offered by music academies in Germany is broad, yet too often early music is only optional in the educational syllabus, having to compete with core courses. The final article gives a brief overview of some of the driving masters in the field – such as Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Jacobs and Haim – and some leading ensembles.

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