Why does Christopher Hogwood keep claiming credit for a discovery that is not his?
mainThe Brahms Albumblatt that caused so much media fuss the other week was no world premiere. The piece had, in fact, known about for a couple of years and received its first known performance in Germany in 2011.
But the conductor Christopher Hogwood, who started the fuss, is continuing to assert ownership of the story. Scholars are unhappy. He ought to back off.
Read on. UPDATE: The whole truth here.
From Hogwood’s website:
“Musicologist Christopher Hogwood ‘stumbled across’ the piece as he looked through a music collection in the United States. The piece was originally found by Michael Struck when a book it was hidden within was being prepared for auction and he was asked for verification.”
Norman,
My colleague, Dr. George Bozarth, a Professor of Music History here at the University of Washington in Seattle and a leading member of the American Brahms Society, sent me a link on April 24th, 2011, to the website on which this ‘newly discovered’ autograph had just been made available. I performed it four days hence, as an encore to my third (of five) recitals in my Mostly Brahms series, on Thursday evening, April 28th, 2011, in Seattle’s Meany Theater. If, in fact, the manuscript had only been released for the first time over the Internet that previous weekend, I might have actually given the world premiere of it. And I have a DVD of the performance (and the memories of several hundred who attended that evening) to prove it! In any case, it is certainly a bit fatuous, even disingenuous, for Christopher to claim discovery of the work.
Craig (Sheppard)
Seattle, WA
Dear Craig
Are you posting your video on youtube?
best
Norman
Here is the link to Craig’s World Premiere performance of the Brahms Albumblatt in A Minor on Youtube.
http://youtu.be/6BKzPDxpB4E