August 8, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

When Sir Roger Norrington returned to life

When Sir Roger Norrington returned to life

The outstanding English conductor, a trailblazer in period-instrument orchestras, died today at the age of 91.

Along with Christopher Hogwood and John Eliot Gardiner, Roger captured the imagination of new audiences with performances that were at once authentic and edgy, fresh and inquisitive. Unlike his fellow pioneers, he was neither arrogant nor greedy. In rehearsals and recordings he consulted at all times with his musicians, engaging with their opinions as much as his own.

The son of a vice-chancellor of Oxford University, he was comfortable with all forms of intellectual inquiry. His worldly knowledge was extensive and he wore it lightly. His tolerance for the less intelligent verged on the saintly.

When I recorded a Lebrecht Inteview with him for BBc Radio 3, he taled movingly about facing death in the 1990s, afflicted by an incurable blood cancer. Referred to an alternative therapy in the US, he survived not just intact but reinvigorated. The BBC, for reasons I understood, deleted this segment. It would have aroused too much controversy of a non-musical nature. But I still regret its omission.

You can hear the final cut here.

Away from period orchestras, he was music director in Stuttgart and Zurich, always leading by persuasion and richly loved by audiences.

Roger was a warm, sane, collegial man, utterly lacking in malice, a joyful companion.

He will be sorely missed.

Except by an American Youtube caster who called him ‘complete worthless dreck’.

Always good to look in a mirror before venturing opinions of this sort.

The post When Sir Roger Norrington returned to life appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

How Anita received the King

Next Article

Kyung Wha Chung hits the road at 77

You might be interested in …

Oscar winner gets classical management

Oscar winner gets classical management

The French film composer Alexandre Desplat has signed with HarrisonParrott for global classical management. Desplat, 62, has been involved in 130 films, winning Academy Awards for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of […]

Edinburgh Festival gets £1m boost

Edinburgh Festival gets £1m boost

Creative Scotland has award multi-year funding to a range of orgs, including the Edinburgh International Festival, which has been on standstill grants since 2008. Under the new deal, the Fest will get £3.25m this year, […]