One of the great pioneers of the early music revival, Frans Brüggen, who had died aged 79, was celebrated equally for his virtuoso recorder playing and his stylistically authoritative conducting. It was as a player of the recorder and baroque flute that he made his reputation, winning accolades for his astonishing variety of tone colour, rhythmic flexibility and the sheer brilliance of his technique.
At the age of 21 he was appointed professor at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, later holding the position of Erasmus professor at Harvard University. As a close associate of the harpsichordistGustav Leonhardt, he appeared as a recorder player on more than 50 releases on Telefunken's Das Alte Werk label. But in 1981 he entered a new phase in this career when he founded the period-instrument Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, remaining in charge of them for the rest of his life, exploring repertoire that ranged from Bach and Rameau through Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Schubert and Mendelssohn.
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