Somewhere I’ve got an uncashed check from Christopher Hogwood, from back in the days when I still had my book business. I remember he had ordered a book of facsimiles of a Purcell manuscript. I was probably about 30 and star struck, so I sent it to him gratis. He likely watched his bank account with a degree of annoyance for months after, as he waited for whatever the amount was to be deducted from his balance.

I only just learned of Hogwood’s death from an unspecified illness lasting several months. He was 73 years-old.

Hogwood, of course, was a pioneer of the early music movement. He was a founding member of the Early Music Consort of London. He also played the harpsichord on recordings of Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. In 1973, he broke away to establish the Academy of Ancient Music. He directed the ensemble for some 30 years and produced more than 200 albums. For a time, he also directed Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society.

By the 1990s, he began to branch out to produce memorable discs of Stravinsky, Sir Michael Tippett and especially Bohuslav Martinu. With the turn of the millennium, he tackled the complete symphonies of the Danish romantic Niels Wilhelm Gade.

In the early days of compact disc, period instrument recordings struck me as metallic and strident. I don’t know if it was the evolution of performance practice, the technology or my ears (perhaps a bit of all three), but that all started to change. By the time I heard Hogwood’s recording of Haydn’s “The Creation,” I found it a revelation. In fact, I’m going to put it on right now.

God bless you, Mr. Hogwood. Rest in peace.