David Dalle
Thursday July 24th, 2025 with David Dalle
The secret to eternal life.

Well maybe not to eternal life, but perhaps to a long life well lived. It would seem being a professional orchestral conductor is very conducive to this, as we see yet another example with English conductor Roger Norrington, who died on July 18th at the age of 91. Norrington had very broad interests growing up, studying history and literature at Cambridge as well as violin and singing. It certainly wasn't obvious he would become a leading conductor. He did a stint in the RAF, and worked at Oxford University Press, while playing violin in amateur orchestras and singing tenor in choirs. In the 1960s he discovered the music of early German Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz and this led him to found the Schütz Choir in 1962. At the encouragement of the principal of the Royal College of Music who attended a performance of the Schütz Choir, he quit his publishing job and began to study conducting full time, with Adrian Boult. He continued with the Schütz Choir, expanding their repertoire to include orchestra, and became the music director of the Kent Opera in 1969, a post he held until 1984. During this time he became preoccupied with the idea of historical performance practice. In 1978 he founded the London Classical Players, an orchestra with the goal of pursuing historically informed performance (HIP) of the main classical repertoire of the 18th and 19th century. It is with this ensemble that he made a prominent name for himself. Norrington could be dogmatic about historically informed performance He was particularly opposed to vibrato even in late 19th century music. This attitude does run counter to my philosophy on music, I see HIP as one tool in a musical toolbox, which can be used to create great performances, not as an end in itself. Regardless, he made many excellent recordings. Today we will hear a recording of Haydn's Symphony no. 102 in B flat with Norrington conducting the London Classical Players. This symphony was composed in 1794 for his second visit to London. It is one of the loudest and energetic Haydn symphonies and you can hear its influence on Beethoven, who was Hadyn's pupil at this time. We will also hear a wide selection of African, Arabic and other music on today's show.