ALAN HACKER "A musician to be treasured in our midst."
- Biography (below)
- Alan Hacker talks about Reeds Australia
- Recent Publications
- Discography
- Involvement with Harrison Birtwistle's new opera
BIOGRAPHY
ALAN HACKER, O.B.E., F.R.A.M., a most important name among UK Clarinettists, studied in London, then France, Germany and Austria on travelling scholarships. At 19 he joined the LPO and was appointed Professor at The Royal Academy of Music. During a long career he has played all over the world, was a founder member in the 'Sixties of the Pierrot Players, The Fires of London and Matrix, and championed not only works of Mozart (Clarinet Concerto and Quintet), but new music. He has been the main protagonist of the Basset Clarinet since Mozart's day, using his own specially built extended instrument.
In the 'Seventies he established The Music Party which gained itself an international reputation in concert and on record. Their versions of Haydn's Nocturnes, Hummel's Clarinet Quintet and Weber's Clarinet Quintet have since been reissued by Polygram. Later, in York, as Senior Lecturer he founded the Classical Orchestra (and the Early Music Festival) which under his direction gave 'first performances' of the classics on original instruments. Many of his former students play in today's Baroque and Classical Orchestra's. He established University studies in Community Music and more recently with his wife Margaret, Music Courses at their home in Yorkshire, conducted in an 'House Party' atmosphere.
In the 'Eighties his work as a conductor developed with work within the Orchestra of La Fenice in Venice, (six staged performances of Bach's St John Passion in the Bach/Handel Centennial Year complemented with performances of Handel's Brockes Passion) the Drottningholm Orchestra at the Schwetzingen Festival, further work in Sweden, the UK, including his acclaimed British performance of Mozart's La Finta Guardiniera. In Mozart's Centennial Year besides performances of the Quintet and the Concerto on Classical - and modern - instruments he conducted four Mozart operatic productions. Cosi fan tutte in Stuttgart, taken over at short notice, was described as the best for many years. Don Giovanni performances were followed by Monteverdi's Ulisse and Purcell's King Arthur (his own version); in both he played as well as conducted.
In the 'Nineties, this remarkable man continued with great strength and passion. Besides more operatic work in Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Cologne he gave wide ranging concerts with leading Continental Orchestras five concerts in 1996 alone with the Ochestre National de Lille of Beethoven, Rossini and a new work, including his own performance of the Mozart Concerto. In the 1998 CD catalogue his recordings of Mozart, Weber, Hummel, and Finzi are given the highest of recommendations. A later CD 'Sun Moon and Stars' is a collaboration wit the great jazz player Tony Coe. Some of his pioneer authentic recordings with Richard Burnett are still available including the Brahms Sonatas and Trio. He worked for a number of years teaching playing and conducting at the Arts Centre in Banff in the Rockies. He was a member of the first British Orchestra to tour Australia, was a visiting lecturer/artiste at the University of Perth, and more recently toured New Zealand.
On into the new Millennium he continued work with the Komische Oper, Berlin, a stage production of Handel's Saul - and his Alcina (Stuttgart) with which he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000. The late William Mann, in one of his many Times' reviews concluded " to everything, even a Frescobaldi Canzona arranged for clarinet and piano, in defiance of the Authenticity Movement for which Hacker has elsewhere laboured valuably (in The Music Party, for instance), he has something uncommon, fresh, and very musical to bring. He is without doubt our clarinet player `hors concours' - a musician to be treasured in our midst."