The Musical Mouse That Roared - The Pioneering Baroque Revival Of 1973

The musical mouse that roared: the pioneering baroque revival of 1973.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon looks back at the events of 1973, an extraordinary year in which many of the UK's pioneering early music ensembles were established.

From today's vantage point, when early music practices have pervaded the entire world of classical music, and when authenticity and fidelity to the text is taken for granted, it is difficult to imagine how revolutionary such ideas were 50 years ago, or the hostility which the early music pioneers encountered.

The early music movement in the UK came in from the outside, as it were. Initially just a group of amateur enthusiasts, it was largely formed of people who not been to conservatoires, who had not worked their ways up through the traditional ranks of the business.

Such a group was tailor-made to displease the musical establishment of the time, and it did so.

Yet fifty years ago, this new fashion swept everything before it: in 1973 the first orchestras devoted to playing music on original 'period' instruments were founded, and the first recordings were launched. Soon the Academy of Ancient Music and its like became the most fashionable things in classical music, but the controversy continued unabated.

This Sunday feature looks back at the excitement of that moment and the issues it raised, revisiting the sounds of those times and the places where it was heard, and to ask the pioneers: why did it happen when it happened?

Sir Nicholas Kenyon looks back at 1973, a momentous year when early music changed forever.