Reminiscences of Christopher Hogwood

Abstract

I first met Chris when we were both undergraduates at Cambridge University. I played under his direction in concerts at his college, Pembroke, and even then recognized the breadth of his knowledge. His musical interests were wide-ranging and his investigative approach was already in evidence. In 1963, when I was president of the Music Club, he directed a performance of Walton’s Façade as the second half of the May Week concert, for which he had hoped to have the use of the original screen through which Edith Sitwell had recited her verses. Two years later, when I was living in Amsterdam and playing in the Netherlands Chamber orchestra, Chris arrived on his way back from a year’s harpsichord study in Prague and came to stay with us in our attic flat. He was the best house guest we ever had. During his stay we celebrated his birthday by playing Brahms sextets to him, an occasion he recalled almost 50 years later when he sent me parts and scores of his own edition, which had just been published by Bärenreiter, as ‘a very late thank you for that memorable birthday present’.