Sir Roger Norrington

Guaranteeing the shock of the old

Sir Roger Norrington is one of the most questing of today's leading conductors, a man never content to accept tradition without a challenge. After ensuring Kent Opera a reputation for superb musicianship and real theatrical imagination, he founded the London Classical Players and made us, once again, respond to the originality of Beethoven's symphonies. These Award-winning interpretations were swiftly followed by similar insights into the music of Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner and Smetana. Currently he heads the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and continues his quest to restore the shock of the old to the classics in the company of this dynamic modern-instrument ensemble.

 

Timeline

1934 Born in Oxford March 16. Educated at the Dragon School; Westminster School; Clare College, Cambridge; Royal College of Music (studying conducting with Sir Adrian Boult)

1962 Founds the Schütz Choir of London

1969-84 Music Director of Kent Opera

1978 Founds the London Classical Players

1980 Awarded an OBE

1984 Founds the Early Opera Project with his wife, the choreographer, Kay Lawrence

1985-89 Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta

1987 Wins a Gramophone Award in the Period Performance category for his EMI disc of Beethoven’s Second and Eighth Symphonies

1990-94 Music Director of the Orchestra of St Luke’s

1990 Awarded a CBE

1997 Made a Knight Bachelor

1997-2006 Chief Conductor of the Camerata Salzburg

1998- Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

2006- Artistic Adviser of the Handel & Haydn Society

2008 Conducts the Last Night of the BBC Proms (September 13)

 

Essential discography

(LCP=London Classical Players; SC=Salzburg Camerata; SRSO=Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra)

 

Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1-9 LCP Virgin Classics 3561943-2

Beethoven. Mendelssohn Violin Concertos Joshua Bell; SC Sony Classical SK89505

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique LCP Virgin Classics 6363286-2

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique SRSO Hänssler Classic 93 103

Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini SRSO Hänssler Classic 93 105

Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem Lynne Dawson; Olaf Bär; Schütz Choir of London; LCP Virgin Classics 3561605-2

Bruckner Symphony No 6 SRSO Hänssler Classic 93 219

Mendelssohn Symphony No 3. Schumann Symphony No 4 LCP Virgin Classics 6349983-2

Purcell The Fairy Queen LCP Virgin Classics 3561955-2

Smetana Ma vlást LCP Virgin Classics 3545301-2

 

 

Essential discography

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