http://www.ilcorrieremusicale.it/2014/08/13/morto-frans-bruggen-1934-2014/
Enciclopedia Italiana - VI Appendice (2000)
by Marta Tedeschini Lalli
Brūggen, Frans
Dutch flautist and conductor, born in Amsterdam on October 30, 1934. At the conservatory of his hometown, he was a student of K. Otten for the recorder and H. Barwahser for the transverse flute; he also studied musicology at university. With the support and collaboration of G. Leonhardt and other musicians, such as cellist A. Bylsma, he was a protagonist in the fifties and sixties of an important research work aimed at reconstructing historical performance practices and the original organology of Renaissance and Baroque instruments. A specialist in the recorder, of which he became one of the greatest virtuosos, he contributed decisively to restoring its repertoire and performance technique; driven by his impulse, even contemporary avant-gardes returned to take interest in the possibilities of this instrument, initiating a substantial renewal of the literature dedicated to it (we recall, among the first, Gesti by L. Berio and Rara by S. Bussotti, both from 1966, dedicated to B., as well as works by L. Andriessen, R. Du Bois, and others). Alongside his commitment as a performer, he always paired teaching activities at the conservatories of The Hague and Amsterdam, as well as serving as a guest professor at European and American universities. His conducting activity, started as early as the seventies, received a decisive impulse with the creation in 1981 of the Eighteenth Century Orchestra, composed of musicians from all over the world based in Amsterdam. After debuting with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, this ensemble, which plays on original instruments, first proposed Baroque and early Classical chamber and vocal repertoire, then extending it to the early nineteenth century, a limit beyond which changes in orchestral, timbral, and instrumental conceptions were no longer reconcilable with the specific peculiarities and vocation of the orchestra. In subsequent years, B. decisively shifted the center of his professional commitment towards conducting, often as a guest conductor of other orchestras, transferring into this activity the experience and artistic personality matured as a soloist.
