Gardiner auctions Hogwood's legacy

The late Christopher Hogwood's collection included 26 beautiful historic keyboard instruments, all of which are to go under the auctioneer's hammer in Bath at the Gardiner Houlgate Auction Rooms on 12 March. We can't help loving the verbal idea of Gardiner auctioning off Hogwood's stuff, but are not sure whether they are indeed related to that Gardiner.

Brodmann grand piano, 1815

The collection features early instruments from harpsichords to fortepianos to dummy keyboards and an organ or two, and stretches all the way from 1650 to 1952. One of the star items is this Joseph Johann Brodmann fortepiano from Vienna of 1815 - prime Beethoven territory - thought to have belonged to Weber and once in the collection of the soprano Emmy Destinn. It is estimated at £22-28,000.

Hass clavichord, 1761

One of the priciest instruments is a clavichord by Johann Adolph Hass from Hamburg, 1761. On this instrument Hogwood recorded five albums including works by the Bach family, Handel and Mozart. Likely price is thought to be around £30-40000. There are also several clavichords made in the early 20th century by Arnold Dolmetsch.

You can explore the catalogue online here. Viewings by appointment.

Aw shuks...

A friendly email arrived yesterday from the community manager of Forte Music Notation Software telling me that JDCMB is among 14 sites nominated for their Best Classical Music Website vote. The winner will be able to give away three licenses for Forte software use to his/her readers. The company describes its product as "music notation software for reading, creating and composing sheet music - created by musicians for musicians".

I'm rather touched and appear to be in excellent company. I don't like asking people to vote for me, really, because it seems deeply immodest...but if you do happen to fancy having a look and placing your vote, you can do so here: http://www.fortenotation.com/en/2015/02/best-classical-music-website/.

Amati: In which I treat a great cellist to lunch

The Amati Magazine, redesigned and under new editorship, kicks off in earnest today with my first Editor's Lunch: a series in which I treat hand-picked luminaries to lunch. Britain's greatest living cellist seemed like a good person for the first one... and I'm pleased to say that the man with the curls and the gut strings accepted my invitation to dine at Baltic. Here is the feature. Enjoy!

Amo, Amas. Amati

I have a little news. As from Monday, I am taking over the editorship of The Amati Magazine, the online magazine of the stringed instrument auction site Amati.com. We are hatching exciting plans to build it up into a valuable resource for music-lovers, musicians amateur and professional, and everyone with an interest in any aspect of the the stringed instrument world - and we will be kicking off with a major star interview over a little fine food. Watch this space: I'll put up a link on Monday. You can also "like" The Amati Magazine's Facebook page, for regular updates. And we will no doubt be tweeting a lot. I'll be carrying on with everything else I usually do, meanwhile.

Those of you who've read Hungarian Dances will know that an Amati violin is a vital character in the novel. This is complete coincidence, but a nice one. Amo, amas, Amati...

Rattle and the appointment headache

Appointing a music director is probably the hardest job an orchestra ever has to do, and appointing the right music director is the most important one. I have a few thoughts in today's Independent about why it's so tricky and why Sir Simon Rattle would be a Good Thing here...and why it's taking so long. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/will-simon-rattle-take-over-at-the-lso-10006409.html

Cheers to another British conductor, Jonathan Nott, incidentally: he's won a ballot by a rare unanimous vote, we're told, to become music director of the Suisse Romande Orchestra.

Now I'm off to Birmingham to talk about Korngold tonight at Symphony Hall, where the CBSO and conductor Michael Seal are doing the Symphony in F sharp, the composer's most important orchestral work. I've never heard it live before, having missed the Prom last year, and as Seal is fast becoming one of today's prominent Korngoldians I suspect we're in for a treat. Do come if you're in Brum. Talk is 6.15pm, concert at 7.30pm. http://cbso.co.uk/?page=concerts/viewConcert.html&cid=2971&m=01&y=2015