The historical-instrument movement has its own historical releases now, and this 1979 recording, which marked the debut of London's
Academy of Ancient Music, is noteworthy for several reasons. As annotator Lindsay Kemp points out, "The revolution didn't start here alone, but with this recording 'period performance' took a giant step forward." Most of the authentic-performance LPs that had appeared up to that point were Continental, and most focused on soloists or small groups. Leader
Christopher Hogwood conducted from the harpsichord and fostered a cooperative ethos and a bright, pleasant sound that became enormously influential, in contrast to the conductor-driven procedures of his Austrian competitor
Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his rather tough string textures. The winds and natural horns seem to spring to life as they arise from the entombment the parts underwent as part of a conventional symphony. And the subject was Thomas Arne, a composer who still has not received his due from revivalists. Many of the Baroque orchestras of the 1970s make for hard listening today, but casting an ear backwards (can an ear be cast?) to this one the listener hears something genuinely new that was in need of tweaking rather than a full-scale overhaul. The music-making is airy and energetic throughout. The wind players, mostly conventional orchestral musicians who had taken up the older instruments as a sideline, struggle in places, and the strings don't have the sheen
Hogwood's ensemble would later develop -- although the latter may actually be counted as a positive feature. The biggest problem is the sound; engineers hadn't figured out how to deal with this kind of an ensemble, and London's All Saints Church, where the
Academy met and rehearsed, was an unforgivingly harsh place that was also inappropriate for the music. Still, at nearly 30 years of age, this is a recording to be treasured for the processes it set in motion.