What prompted your career shift from schoolteacher to professional singer?
Just happenstance; l had loved singing at university, especially focussing on period performance, since I’d been lucky to meet student players of lutes, harpsichords, renaissance and baroque strings and wind. Essentially, though, I was a chorister and chamber singer, never imagining that there would be a career in that repertoire, since serious singers of the time were mostly aiming at opera.
I enjoyed teaching (or at least trying it!) in the Classics department of a friendly comprehensive school in Berkshire, but then offers came in from some of London’s pioneer early music groups – so after three years full time and one year of three days a week I took the plunge, thinking to myself, ‘if this doesn’t work out I can always go back to teaching’.
Now I teach quite a bit, coaching singers mainly on that repertoire, and sharing small but effective practices that have helped me over the years. I love to do that, especially if the result is that things get a little easier for these talented, informed and hard-working young performers.
Could you reflect on your experience of working with Christopher Hogwood?
As I have said, I am a chamber animal and love to collaborate; Christopher was bringing together new players making inspiring sounds, which drew from me an instinctive response. I think as a group we didn’t feel pressured or judged, but rather just encouraged and trusted. He was also a fund of information on the physical, cultural and intellectual milieu of this music, and never afraid to try a new effect if his research seemed to suggest it; more often than not this approach paid off handsomely.
Are there any performances, recordings or special projects during your time with the AAM that stand out in your memory?
Out of so many(!) I would pick out one of the earliest: La Resurrezione, one of those marvellous pieces from Handel’s time in Italy. We had a wonderful cast – Ian Partridge, Patrizia Kwella, Carolyn Watkinson, and of course David Thomas’s Lucifero; as Angelo, I had such fun sparring with him! The large band was fantastic; the work was new to all of us I believe, and everyone was in a sort of blissful shock as one magical aria followed another.
Around 1985: anniversary tours of Bach and Handel all over the States – David Thomas and me with a small but perfectly formed team of strings, wind and brass. One moment we were running around the stage as Apollo and Daphne, or sparring with each other in the Coffee Cantata; the next we would be listening to a concerto grosso or a Bach Suite – what a way to make a living!
And, a good while later: Bach’s Johannes Passion in the Barbican. That hall isn’t easy; and I think it was Margaret Cable who suggested that the singers sing not from the front of the stage but (a little raised) from behind the players. The result was a beautifully natural balance, very comfortable for all. In the rehearsal, as I remember, there were some moments of doubt, as things felt quite lengthy and even began to seem laboured; but in performance Christopher somehow managed, without histrionics, to encapsulate the real drama, such that afterwards we came off stage asking each other ‘what just happened?’
Singing in the 1979 Messiah recording was extraordinary luck for me. James Bowman unfortunately had lost much of the year with a bout of pharyngitis, and Chris, unsure if he would be well enough, decided on two sopranos instead. Judy Nelson was his main soprano so she sang the well-known pieces, and I could try the high versions of Guadagni’s arias, without the pressure to live up to previous iconic performances. I was already greatly enjoying duo work with Judy, not just a lovely and characterful singer, but simply one of the kindest, funniest and most inspiring people you could ever work with.
Actually I really hadn’t yet fully experienced Messiah at this stage, so I was delighted to get to know it, and appreciate Jennen’s skill creating that libretto from such a range of beautiful Old Testament utterances.
Our 1982 filmed live performance of Messiah in Westminster Abbey was quite a tough challenge – one of the coldest days you could imagine in that lovely building, especially in the series of dresses designed for us by the BBC, one for each part. Just as well there was virtually no editing, as a single take for each aria was about all we could manage; there was certainly a strong sense of occasion to it!
We loved hearing the Christ Church boys in the choruses, and as far as I remember we toured the piece to some fun places too; but we soloists had the luck to go with Chris to various American orchestras, and the Montreal Symphony too, over the next few years. Chris would work maybe one day with orchestra alone, but as soon as he could he would bring us in, and without comment, simply start each aria, bring whichever of us in, and then sit back while the players took in these atypical sounds, and, in most cases, started to make subtle adjustments to their style, in response to our rather more ‘spoken’ delivery. Not every player was ecstatic(!) but in general we were courteously heard and kindly accompanied, and some of the players enjoyed this departure from the prevailing approach: what the late Francis Baines, borrowing from Huxley, would call ‘pneumatic’ singing, which had for so long characterised their annual Messiahs.
These are just a handful of memories of AAM projects early in that first half century. I am filled with gratitude for so many fantastic moments; I am excited by recent projects such as Eccles’s Semele – great singing but also what fantastic playing. I look forward to hearing the recording of Weldon’s The Judgment of Paris with such an amazing trio of goddesses, as well as more Mozart Piano Concertos, more Haydn Symphonies, and, and…
Thanks and congratulations to all who play for and all who support AAM!
Emma Kirkby, December 2023
Emma Kirkby, Christopher Hogwood and James Bowman, at Pergolesi recordings sessions, St Jude’s Church 1988
Portrait of Emma Kirkby (top) by Allan Watson, 2018
