Dutch conductor Frans Brüggen has died aged 79

Frans Brüggen, a conductor and key figure in Holland’s early music scene, has died at the age of 79.

A music specialist of the 18th and early 19th centuries, Brüggen died on 13 August at his home in Amsterdam, announced his orchestra. Born in the same city, Brüggen also studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam, before he was appointed as a professor at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague aged 21. A noted recorder player and flautist, he was a soloist in the baroque repertoire and conducted many leading European orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Brüggen co-founded the Orchestra of the 18th Century, which specialises in making music using authentic instruments or replicas from the period. Some of his most famous recordings include selections from the Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts of Jean-Philippe Rameau, as a flautist, and as a conductor, symphonies of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert.

Brüggen was the uncle of the recorder soloist and Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet member Daniël Brüggen, and was married to art historian Machtelt Israëls, with whom he had two daughters, Zephyr and Eos.