From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries



This is a big one for me. Back in the late 80's / early 90's, this guy
and Christopher Hogwood led the "original instruments" revolution in
classical music. (Hogwood died in 2014 at age 73.) I was one of the
weirdos whose imagination it captured. At the same time, I got hugely
into Paul Badura-Skoda, who played early 19-century music on early
19th-century pianofortes that he restored himself.

The movement called for strict adherence to tempi, valveless horns[1],
skin drumheads, gut strings. It didn't always work 100% -- the
Norrington recording of the Beethoven piano concertos with Melvyn Tan
(a fine pianist) are more annoying than illuminating because the solo instrument just plain sounds kind of bad. But when it worked, holy
crap. It was like hearing the Eroica again for the first time.

[1] I have attended a couple of such concerts, and you can see the
horn players dissasembling and reassembling their horns between
movements because it's the only way they can shift keys.

The movement has faded for sure, but my personal friend John
Gardiner[2] is still out there with his orchestra carrying on the
tradition with excellent results.

[2] Well, I said hello to him that one time, and he said hello back.

Anyway, RIP. Here is a pretty good appreciation:

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/sir-roger-norrington-has-died-aged-91/
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