From gut strings to rigorous academic research: passionate practitioners of historical performance discuss the challenges and joys of recreating the sounds of the past.
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‘Historically informed performance is a musical language which takes years of experience to become fluent. There is much more to it than just picking up a period instrument or popping gut strings on your violin and working out how to play it technically, in time, and in tune,’ says Nicole van Bruggen, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s co-Artistic Director and principal clarinet.
‘I like to use the analogy of learning a language – it is one thing to have high school French, but quite another to speak it like a native,’ she adds.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, van Bruggen says historically informed performance actually allows the players some individual musical expression, even though it is based on extensive research and scholarship.
‘Specialising in historic performance allows for an artistic freedom coupled with an academic foundation which is often not afforded in modern instrument ensembles and orchestras which are bound by late 20th-century modes of learning and performance,’ she says.
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ArtsHub, 22 November 2022