Of the "second wave" of Baroque-instrument groups — the ensembles,
mostly London-based, such as Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music and
John Eliot Gardiner's English Baroque Soloists that achieved real success in the
classical recording marketplace in the 1980s — Trevor Pinnock's
orchestra The English Concert was considered by many the most exciting. Even
after two decades, their recordings of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Handel's
Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music and Bach's Brandenburg
Concertos are counted among the best in a crowded field. Yet after 30 years,
Trevor Pinnock has decided to hand control of The English Concert over to a new
director.
Pinnock, who first came to prominence as a harpsichordist, wishes to pursue a solo career, explaining that "there are other things I want to develop — or rather come back to. Having done The English Concert for 18–20 weeks per year, and guest conducting the rest of the time, I'd sacrificed playing the harpsichord rather more than I wanted to. I had to make a decision to move forward: there were certain solo projects I wanted to do, and I wanted to make the decision now rather than wait until after I am 60 and it's too late to do half of them."
Despite some major acclaim and good sales over the years, The English Concert
was quietly dropped by Deutsche Grammophon in the mid-1990s, but Pinnock's
recent return to the recording studio as a solo artist has won him fresh
attention. A Gramophone Award for his Channel Classics recording of Bach
Partitas for harpsichord has also given Pinnock extra encouragement to fine-tune
the direction of his career — "although the decision was already made
by then" he says. Pinnock explains that "There's a wealth of keyboard repertoire
I want to revisit. I especially want to go back to the rich English repertoire
such as Tomkins, Byrd, Bull and Gibbons."
But Pinnock is not abandoning the orchestra he founded and directed for so many years, and he is justifiably proud of its great legacy of recordings. He hopes that "in future years I will direct special projects, and I look forward to returning as a guest conductor," but is keen to make it clear that there will be a new overall director. Pinnock acknowledges that "It will be important for The English Concert to work out a successful way of establishing a new identity without me".
Such a modest step fits in neatly with the present Zeitgeist of English period-instrument ensembles. In the mid-1990s Roger Norrington's London Classical Players evolved into the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; although they still play under Norrington with many of the same LCP personnel, they also work with an impressive array of guest conductors, including Frans Brüggen, René Jacobs, Charles Mackerras and Simon Rattle. Likewise, The Academy of Ancient Music works with several directors other than founder Christopher Hogwood. Felix Warnock, general manager of The English Concert, suggests that "it is in the nature of all the groups who are exclusively identified with their sole director that they either have a time-limited existence or they must address the question of what happens next." However, Warnock insists that "The English Concert has definitely not followed any model in choosing a new director. We wanted a single artistic director to stamp their own musical personality on every aspect of the orchestra's work. In contrast, the AAM is a kind of triumvirate and the OAE is a democracy without a single artistic director. The English Concert has always been more of a benevolent dictatorship!"
The violinist Andrew Manze has done much to rejuvenate the modern-day Academy
of Ancient Music (named after the 18th century society that defined "Antient
musick" as over 30 years old). Yet in a surprise move late last year, Mr. Manze
— who brought enviable success to the AAM with a series of fine and
imaginative recordings for Harmonia Mundi — has been appointed as
Trevor Pinnock's successor at The English Concert. Pinnock confesses that
"Andrew was actually top of the wish list, although we had no idea if he'd be
available. Then, by coincidence Andrew and I had a chance meeting at London's
Stansted airport, we got on very well, and arranged to meet again to play some
music." Manze agrees that "It was one of those things were several coincidences
happened, and everyone was saying it felt like it was meant to be!"
Manze is eminently qualified for the job. He started playing Baroque violin
while studying classics at Cambridge, studied as a postgraduate at the Royal
Academy of Music and became a regular member of Ton Koopman's Amsterdam Baroque
Orchestra. Manze subsequently became the concertmaster of Koopman's orchestra
for four years, during which time he recorded an acclaimed version of Vivaldi's
Four Seasons for Erato. In 1996 Christopher Hogwood asked Manze to become the associate
director of the AAM. Manze pays tribute to his mentor, drawing attention to
Hogwood's remarkable generosity: "Chris is a very generous man — just
the idea of sharing his orchestra! It was partly because he was very busy, but
is was also partly a sort of musical idealism that he feels, that one musician
can't provide the whole spectrum that people ought to hear now." Before that,
Manze had only played with the AAM a few times: "I had done a tour of Japan
— that was all! I'd also done a couple of one-off recording sessions,
such as in 1988 
for their recording of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
— I was back in the second [violin]s for that. I'd met Christopher
Hogwood at Cambridge — only briefly though: he lives there, but he's
never there. So the Academy was essentially a new orchestra to me —
although I'd met a lot of the players through the European Union Baroque
Orchestra, and had therefore known a lot of them for ten years."
Since Hogwood decided to share the reins of the AAM with Manze and Paul Goodwin (as it happens, the former oboist of The English Concert) the orchestra has undergone a renaissance. Manze ascribes this achievement to a lot of hard work and the stabilization of the Academy's membership. "It had become a little bit loose as to what the Academy actually was. That has often been a criticism of the English Baroque orchestras — that they're so incredibly free-lance that they are a different orchestra every day. We managed to streamline the orchestra very much, and I hope that you can hear that in the playing."
The English Concert, which has been out of the international limelight in the last decade, presents Manze with a fresh challenge. Manze admits that "when the English Concert invitation came along, at first it felt a little premature because I thought there is still so much more repertoire to do, and there is further the Academy can go as an orchestra. But The English Concert are such a wonderful orchestra — an opportunity like that doesn't come along every day, so I just felt I had to take it." Manze is already very affectionate towards his new ensemble, and he is tangibly enthusiastic when he says "I've always thought The English Concert was a very fine orchestra. When I was at the Royal Academy of Music I was studying with Simon Standage, who was then the leader [concertmaster] of the orchestra. I used to go and listen to it, and another colleague of mine, Jaap ter Linden, was at that time principal cello. But most of all, I think Trevor Pinnock has such a warm musical personality, and for years the orchestra has always set the standard that everyone else has had to aspire to."
Pinnock speaks of his heir apparent with equal warmth. "It suits Andrew very well at this stage in life to be the big boss of his own orchestra. Although strictly speaking the finding of a new director wasn't my job, I knew Andrew was just the right person. The beginning of the transition has been remarkably smooth, and has a feeling of rightness about it. After more than 30 years, it isn't just an orchestra, it's a family, so it is very important to me that it goes into the right hands. I think that he will give the orchestra the care and commitment it needs."
Of course there is a footnote of regret among the
optimism. Manze is sad to leave The Academy of Ancient Music, and they will
certainly be reluctant to lose him. Rather than attempt to replace Manze,
Christopher Hogwood says that "The AAM will broaden its artistic base yet
further by performing with a number of guest directors: some of these will be
familiar to the period-instrument world, while others will be newcomers." Manze
is eager to pay tribute to the Academy
"because the players have been wonderful," yet the impending parting of ways
seems to contain much goodwill on all sides. Christopher Hogwood kindly predicts
that "After more than seven years of enjoying Andrew's music-making, we will
send Andrew off in style at the end of the 2002–03 season." Yet it
seems that the recent Bach harpsichord concertos discs with Richard Egarr are
likely to be Manze's last with the AAM, bringing an end to an era almost as soon
as it had begun.
Manze officially commences with The English Concert in September 2003, "although actually we will probably do some stuff during the summer, and we're even going to do some 'ice-breaking' events." Manze plans to direct from the violin, which is an interesting development for an orchestra known for its harpsichordist director. Yet The English Concert has an established tradition of fine concertmasters, including Simon Standage, Peter Hanson and Rachel Podger (the current concertmistress, who, due to growing family commitments, is unable to continue in the post from 2003). Manze — who will also fill Podger's role — believes that "When you have an orchestra that good, it should be directed from the instruments unless the music is really too complex. Trevor only conducts when coordination becomes too big an issue. I feel strongly, for musical reasons, that we should hear this music without conductors nowadays. We're so used now to Bernstein's Mahler, John Eliot Gardiner's Mozart, and this is actually a slightly false way of presenting the music. Christopher Hogwood actually said about four years ago that he'd like to get to the point where he never conducts music that doesn't need conducting — he had ended up conducting Handel concerti grossi, and although he is a great Handelian, I think he felt superfluous."
Manze — who has over the years received much encouragement from Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood, and Trevor Pinnock — is already planning to share his orchestra in a similar manner. Emmanuelle Haïm will direct a performance of Rameau's 'heroic pastorale' La Guirlande in the 2003–04 concert season, largely because Manze believes that "French repertoire is a big lacuna in English baroque orchestras. Few of them have done Rameau really well." Manze also would like to work in opera, but only if the conditions are right. "I have to say I'm only really interested in doing opera if the musical and theatrical sides are working arm in arm. That sounds like such an obvious thing to say, but so many operas nowadays have reviews that say 'It's lovely if you keep your eyes shut.' I've spoken to so many opera lovers who say 'this is beautiful, but it was a shame about the production.' This is ridiculous. I feel there are fundamental things you need to have sorted out before you sing or play a note."
Manze is hoping to extend the repertoire of The English
Concert in both directions. Pinnock has done some Monteverdi in recent years,
and Manze is also keen to investigate the 17th century: "The music isn't
strictly orchestral, but there is also a good choir there with a good body of
solo voices. That's the perfect repertoire in which to use that, and a lot of
the players in the orchestra are very interested in the 17th century. But I also
feel that in the last few years The English Concert has stuck 
very firmly to the heartland of
Baroque, and I'd like to go more into Mozart". Manze has not recorded any Mozart
yet, and he reveals that Harmonia Mundi is very interested in recording his
performances of the Violin Concertos with The English Concert. Manze is already
looking ahead to the next Mozart anniversary in 2006, and is hoping that The
English Concert will be back "up and running as a Mozart orchestra." Manze is
also hoping to extend his projects to include genres he was not likely to direct
at the AAM. He speaks fondly of lesser-known Mozart, saying "There a lot of
arias and ensemble numbers — trios, quartets — which he wrote
for other people's operas, and there is some very good music there that we just
never hear. I'm always interested to look at what programs were originally done
by Mozart, and those organized soon after he died by people such as his widow
Konstanze, who were keeping the Mozart flame alive. The music they chose to
perform was not what you hear nowadays. It is amazing that there are pieces we
still don't hear, and I think we should hear them. It's great music."
Apparently Harmonia Mundi agrees. Unusually in these troubled times, Manze
cannot praise his record label highly enough. "Harmonia Mundi are fantastic. If
they believe in the musician, that extends to them also believing in the
musician's ideas and suggestions — so long as you don't suggest
something completely daft, like the Bruckner 9. I've never had an idea turned
down — but there again I've never put forward an idea which is
dodgy."
