Sir Roger Norrington, the English conductor identified for traditionally knowledgeable performances, handed away final Friday, July 18. He was 91.
Born in Oxford, Norrington rose to prominence within the Nineteen Sixties when he revived and championed the choral music of the seventeenth century German composer, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). In 1962, Norrington based the Schütz Choir. He went on to discovered the London Classical Gamers, an ensemble he led till 1997. In later years, he served as principal conductor of Camerata Salzburg (1997-2006) and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (1998-2011).
Roger Norrington’s strategy to music was idiosyncratic, and at occasions controversial. His tempos have been brisk. He adopted Beethoven’s speedy metronome markings. He insisted that the strings play with out vibrato. (This adherence to a pure, uncolored sound prolonged to the music of Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, and Vaughan Williams). He contended that orchestral string sections started utilizing vibrato solely as late because the Thirties.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Main, Op. 55, Eroica
This live performance efficiency of Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Eroica) options Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra:
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Here’s a 1992 efficiency of the entire opera. Roger Norrington leads the London Classical Gamers, the Schütz Choir of London, and a solid which incorporates Andreas Schmidt (Don Giovanni), Amanda Halgrimson (Donna Anna), John Mark Ainsley (Don Ottavio), Lynne Dawson (Donna Elvira), Gregory Yurisich (Leoporello), Alastair Miles (Il Commendatore), Gerald Finley (Masetto), and Nancy Argenta (Zerlina).
