The early music movement has been so fashionable of late that one might think it was a recent invention. Not true. If the current generation of harpsichordists, viol players, and Bach specialists wanted to trace their musical genealogy, they could draw the family tree all the way back to Flex Mendelssohn, who effectively began the movement some 160 years ago in Berlin by introducing Europe to the wonders of the forgotten "old Bach." Although the family history clearly goes back several generations or more, the movement's recent and rapid strides into the main stream of classical music has led some observers to label the current crop of early music performers the "second generation."
For a decade or more this second generation has distinguished itself from its forebears by achieving popular success. From London, the unofficial capital of the movement, a steady stream of advances, both in terms of repertoire and artistic quality, has been eagerly snapped up by the public. The Renaissance and Baroque, once the traditional hunting ground of first-generation performers, have been pushed into the background as the Classical composers - Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven - are explored, studied, and recorded. Figures such as Roger Norrington, leader of the widely acclaimed London Classical Players, are pushing the limits of so-called "early music" by performing and recording nineteenth century composers such as Berlioz. Such pioneers have an almost cult popularity with eager audiences.
Against this background, it has always seemed strange that the United States has never fostered a world-class period instruments orchestra. Indeed, in New York, the self-proclaimed cultural hub of the country, a remedy was finally devised in the form of the Classical Band, a period-instruments group that sprang up fully formed, complete with a major recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and the leadership of Trevor Pinnock, a highly respected English harpsichordist and conductor. But despite its auspicious imprimatur, the Classical Band's 1989 debut was underrehearsed and it left New Yorkers still grumbling about their embarrassing early music void.
That embarrassment was heightened by the New York debut last spring of Nicholas McGegan and his San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. These Bay Area musicians undertook a very successful East Coast tour, which included a concert at Lincoln Center's intimate Alice Tully Hall. In it they proved themselves to be the only American ensemble with the musical polish to compete with European early music ensembles.
The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra began its existence in 1981 as a leaderless period-instruments ensemble. After four years of variable fortunes and collective inefficiency, they turned to McGegan, originally a Baroque flutist with Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music. At the time McGegan was teaching at Washington University and developing a reputation for early music performances in some of the less traveled nether reaches of Central Europe. Upon arriving is San Francisco he began quietly raising his new orchestra to world-class status.
Fundamental Concerns
While he could never be called a traditionalist, McGegan concentrated his energies on some of the less fashionable but more fundamental areas of performance: tone quality, ensemble skill, and musical accuracy.
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