Culture Whisper Meets Richard Egarr, Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music

Conductor, choral and keyboard specialist Richard Egarr is one of the most distinguished performers of period music on the international stage. Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music since 2006, he established that group’s choir soon after joining, and has since directed a series of acclaimed productions of 17th and 18th century choral works and operas with AAM, in addition to performing as a guest conductor with orchestras worldwide.

AAM has been associate ensemble at the Barbican Centre since 2012, and this year celebrates its fortieth anniversary, with a celebratory series of special events. Particularly exciting are the Three Last Symphonies concert on 21 June (previewed here), a symphonic extravaganza of finality, and the autumn production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea (previewed here).

Culture Whisper is delighted to have spoken to Richard Egarr about the AAM’s anniversary, its programme for next year, and the attraction and challenge of period performance.

CW: The AAM celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and by the end of your tenure in 2017, you will have been director for a quarter of that time. Looking back, what is AAM most proud of in its first 40 years?

RE: There is so much to be proud of it is impossible to say.  Surely one is the incredible recorded legacy that was made by the AAM and Christopher Hogwood - such ground-breaking stuff.  I think the AAM can be proud of the way in which it has stuck to its historical path, but has continued to develop and grow rather than get stuck.

Now that the pre-Romantic repertoire is so well established, is there a need for a specialist ensemble for “ancient music”? Have you any plans to change what you do?

Of course! Our work is never done, and there is always more to discover, learn and try.  It is never good enough to say that you have exhausted the possibilities... in any repertoire, but particularly the Baroque.

As the director of a period orchestra, you often conduct from the harpsichord, and still perform regularly as a soloist. Is that one of the attractions of smaller period groups, that you can continue your keyboard work as well?  

First, the AAM is not necessarily a smaller group.  Our size depends on the repertoire - we use an appropriate number of players for each repertoire and circumstance.  However, being "one of the players" too is a great joy, and something I would never like to lose.

You have suggested that early music is often played in too reserved a manner. How do we know? Do you think this puts audiences off?

We know... just read anything about the way audiences reacted and behaved during musical performances (even at the beginning of the 20th century!)  Music demanded (and still should) an emotional response from both player and listener... it should not be a passive activity.

How should we perform pre-Romantic music? Is there an AAM sound or style? If so, how would you describe it?

See above.  All we can do is read, learn and the put our knowledge into active practice.  An AAM style?... difficult to say.  As Music Director of course I influence how things will be, but I believe in the AAM we are all doing it for the same reason and want the end result to move and excite our audiences.

You close your summer Barbican season with your ‘Three Last Symphonies’ programme, of Mozart, Haydn (appropriately enough, his ‘London’ symphony) and Beethoven. Clearly, they are all great and famous works, but is there anything else about them that you want to draw attention to? What do they all have that attracted you to the idea of playing them together?

These symphonies are all great masterworks with very different agendas. The Mozart is an astonishingly clever and sunny work which I know Mozart would have felt very satisfied with.  The Haydn is a summation of all that is great about his public symphonic writing - expertly designed to delight and amuse the crowd, but with fabulously subtle musical jokes for the performer. The Beethoven is simply one of the greatest works ever penned.

You’re in the middle of a very ambitious three-year Monteverdi opera cycle, with Poppea opening in the autumn. His operas are the oldest in the repertoire: what are the challenges, and why are they still worth listening to?

Because they are still perhaps 3 of the greatest operas ever written.

The “Handel in London” concert contains some fairly unusual British pieces. Why are Boyce and Arne, in general, so little performed?

English eighteenth century music is undervalued for one very bad reason - fashion.  As Oscar Wilde put it: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months".  Arne and Boyce are both deserving English composers, and if played well can delight and please people.

AAM performs regularly in the newly Milton Court concert hall, which received a warm reception from critics when it was opened last year. What is the hall like to play in? What difference will audiences notice? 

Milton Court is a fantastic hall, and we are enjoying it immensely.  It has a clear and warm sound as I am sure audiences will hear. 

When you look at AAM’s programme for the next year, what are you, personally, most looking forward to? Can you pick out a single highlight?

No highlights... it's all one big highlight.  Make sure you all come!