Academy of Ancient Music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is one of the world's first period-instrument orchestras. The musicians play on instruments which are either original instruments or copies of instruments from the period of time the music was composed. This is broadly 17-18th century music (1600-1850 Monteverdi-Mendelssohn).

[edit] Original organization

The original Academy of Ancient Music was founded in London, England in 1726 for the purpose of studying and performing "old" music — defined initially as anything composed at least a century earlier but soon grew to include more contemporary composers, most notably Handel.

Directors of the organization included Johann Christoph Pepusch (from 1735 onwards), Benjamin Cooke (dates??) and Samuel Arnold (from 1789 onwards).

[edit] Modern revival

In 1973, the Academy of Ancient Music was revived by the British conductor and harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood for the purpose of playing 18th- and early 19th-century music on period instruments. For choral works, it is joined either by the Academy of Ancient Music Chorus or by a cathedral or collegiate choir with boys' voices. In 1996 the Academy of Ancient Music appointed Paul Goodwin as Associate Conductor and Andrew Manze as Associate Director under Christopher Hogwood. In 2003 Andrew Manze resigned as Associate director to be replaced in 2005 by Richard Egarr. In May, 2006 it was announced that Richard Egarr would succeed Hogwood as Music Director of the Academy on September 1 and that Hogwood would receive the title of Emeritus Director.

The Academy of Ancient Music was the first orchestra to record all of Mozart's symphonies on period instruments. The Academy has since recorded the complete piano concertos and symphonies of Beethoven, and is part way through recording the complete Haydn symphonies and the complete Mozart piano concertos with fortepianist Robert Levin. The Academy has also recorded Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Handel's Orlando and Rinaldo, Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, Haydn's Orfeo and over 200 other recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, EMI and the new live recording label Wigmore Hall Live.

The commissioning of new works under Paul Goodwin represented a new development for the orchestra. The first commission and recording, John Tavener's Eternity's Sunrise, met with enthusiastic critical acclaim and led to a second new Tavener work and recording, Total Eclipse. David Bedford's Like a Strand of Scarlet followed in 2001 and, in 2003, the AAM premiered John Woolrich's Arcangelo, written to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Corelli. The next commission in 2006 celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth with a work from the Scottish-American composer, Thea Musgrave, 'Journey into Light' which was written as a companion piece to Mozart's ‘Exsultate, jubilate'.

Both Tavener recordings are on Harmonia Mundi, for whom The AAM has made a number of CDs: Mozart's Zaïde and Christmas music by Schütz and his contemporaries (conducted by Paul Goodwin); violin concertos by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi, and concerti grossi by Handel and Geminiani (directed by Andrew Manze); and Bach's harpsichord concertos (directed by Richard Egarr). Choral recordings include works by Bach, Handel, Purcell and Vivaldi with King's College Choir under Stephen Cleobury, and two recordings with Edward Higginbottom and New College Choir: Pergolesi's Marian Vespers and Coronation Anthems, a collection of music from 17th and 18th-century English coronations.

The orchestra regularly plays at presitgious venues and festivals in the United Kingdom and around the world including London's Wigmore Hall, Barbican Arts Centre, the BBC Proms and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

The AAM is Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge.

[edit] External links

Academy of Ancient Music website
The Original Academy of Ancient Music by William Weber

Orchestras based in London, England
Academy of Ancient Music · Academy of St. Martin in the Fields · BBC Concert Orchestra · BBC Symphony Orchestra · Camerata of London · City of London Sinfonia · English Chamber Orchestra · London Philharmonic Orchestra · London Sinfonietta · London Symphony Orchestra · Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment · Philharmonia · Royal Philharmonic Orchestra