Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment

About

Official Site: http://www.oae.co.uk/

Principal Artists:
Iván Fischer
Vladimir Jurowski
Sir Simon Rattle CBE

Emeritus Conductors:
Frans Brüggen
Sir Charles Mackerras
Sir Roger Norrington

“Never have I heard an orchestra fizz at such speed,energy or accuracy,utterly in period,smiles radiating as they relished each other ’s playing ”.
The Independent, 5 June 2003

It's 1986. For some ten years there has existed a largely London-based core of players of baroque instruments who have played for bands run by extraordinarily gifted and motivated pioneers in the field of period style performance practice like Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Roger Norrington. Confidence and standards have improved greatly in that time. Music-making has been transformed. We're no longer over-reverential with our Bach or Mozart but find in them new colours, new expressivity, new energies. Bands like the Academy of Ancient Music and the English Concert are frantically busy in concert hall and recording studio.

And then a revolution. A group of players decides that if the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra can be self-governing, so can an orchestra of period instruments. They settle on a name: the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, soon to be commonly abbreviated to OAE. It's a name that reflects both the period of much of the music they play - though later their boundaries extend to post-Enlightenment Verdi - and to the ethos of discovery which is their purpose There will be no single conductor. Instead, conductors or (often) directors from violins or keyboards will be appointed on a concert-by-concert basis, instantly widening the field to include those who, though with much to contribute, might not otherwise ever face an orchestra of period instruments. The musicians are the stakeholders. Their own economic involvement demands that the project succeeds. And it does. The OAE is quickly recognised as something special, its playing charged with a vibrancy and energy that comes from its entire body, not only from one inspirational figurehead.

Nearly twenty years later the OAE, now with one of those founder members, violinist Marshal Marcus, transformed into its Chief Executive, is still flourishing, is still giving concerts charged with creative energy. There's still no single Principal Conductor or Music Director. Two great men, however, have been given the title of Principal Guest Conductor, the Dutch baroque and classical specialist Frans Bruggen and the ever adventurous Sir Simon Rattle. The leadership is rotated between three violinists, Alison Bury, Margaret Faultless and Catherine Mackintosh. Most significantly the OAE's commitment to raising its own standards has meant that instead of representing a fringe movement, rather frowned upon in some quarters of the mainstream, as was the case in 1986, it's played a crucial role in placing period style performance at the very heart of the musical world.

Not the least significant factor in enabling it to claim such a position has been the fact that the orchestra has established a firm footing in the world of opera. It was the young Rattle who first asked for the OAE to be used at Glyndebourne, for a production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro back in 1989. It's been visiting the Sussex countryside regularly ever since and is now designated as Associate Orchestra. And in 2003 the OAE was heard for the first time in the Royal Opera House pit. It's also Associate Orchestra at London's South Bank Centre, and last season began a residency in the south west region of England.

Imaginative programming - last season saw an extended South Bank project devoted to Mendelssohn which included a reconstruction of Mendelssohn's famous 1829 performance of the St Matthew Passion - together with burgeoning educational activities and a long, distinguished list of recordings ensure that the OAE maintains its prominence and continues to thrill audiences of all ages and levels of experience with its extraordinary playing, dynamic, refined, and above all always characterful.

Stephen Pettitt

Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment Newsletter