FW: In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was considerable interest in period-instrument performance. In the UK there was an enormously talented group of people of around the same age who were exploring this territory. Trevor Pinnock is an obvious example, but others include Christopher Hogwood, Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner. In continental Europe there were people like Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt, who were a little older, and have gone on to achieve god-like status. I was at music college at the time, and was very aware of the revolution which was happening in places like Vienna and Amsterdam. Trevor started playing regularly with Simon Preston and Anthony Pleeth in 1972. They formed the nucleus of The English Concert when it came into being a year later.

What are the highlights of that 30-year history?

FW: There was a really important period in the 1980s when the violinist Simon Standage and Trevor really established the group’s reputation with the help of Deutsche Grammophon and their Archiv label. That put the ensemble on an international footing.

There were so many individual events that it is hard to pick out one or two, but there were things I was aware of even before I became associated with the group. One of these has to be when Trevor took the Messiah to the Salzburg Festival in the mid-1980s. That was a revolution on its own: at the time Salzburg was dominated by Karajan and his style of performance.

I tend to think of The English Concert as mostly performing small-scale works. Is that fair?

FW: It is fair, in that this is our core repertoire. But The English Concert has been around for 30 years, and in that time has gone through a number of re-inventions. There was a big change when we started to record classical works. That was part of a wider trend –doubtless driven by record company marketing departments– and did bring a big change in the concept of what The English Concert was. Another big change was the decision to involve singers, who are needed both for some of the classical works, and for major baroque compositions. From then on there were both large and small versions of The English Concert.

Was that with Trevor Pinnock conducting or directing from the keyboard?

FW: Trevor’s preference was always to direct from the keyboard. He regarded the conductor as an essentially 19th century invention.

Is the Choir of The English Concert simply the choir put together for these works?

FW: At one time The English Concert used to assemble groups of singers as needed. When I joined in the mid-1990s there was already a performance of the B Minor Mass in the schedule. Trevor and I though hard about the singers for this, and came to the conclusion that the answer was to create our own very good choir. The Mass in B Minor demands, probably more than any other of the great religious works from the 18th century, choral singing of the absolutely highest standard.

AM: The choir are very much part of our plans. Trevor was keen to involve young singers at the start of their careers. For the Biber mass we carefully chose members of the choir as our soloists.