This term was more useful in 1972 when, in early music, there really were
but a few hotbeds of exciting early music activity.  While there was a
great deal of early music being recorded, it tended to be either sedately
performed on olde instruments (any number of English viol consorts, etc) or
neo-classic/romantic performances that were 'good for you' (Richter, et.
al.) which were capable of communicating great power, but lacked the
finesse and clarity that was wafting in on the Amsterdam and Vienna breezes
epitomized by Leonhardt and Harnoncourt.  They piled on stylishness in
giddy amounts, sometimes to excess, but still giving the lie to the idea
that early music was not about expressiveness.  But with the acceptance of
early music by mainline recording companies (DGG, EMI, etc.) we have reaped
an 'international' style of early music performance.  However, during the
subsequent years, Amsterdam was the one city guaranteed to be high on any
aspiring student's list of places to study so in a very real sense, most
people today are well-informed by the lessons of the Amsterdam
instrumentalists if not outright practitioners of the 'Amsterdam' style.
 
Enough seriousness.  One day in the early 70's I chanced upon Frank Hubbard
in the driveway of the Lyman Carriage House as he returned from some
errand.  We conversed a bit about musical matters.  At that time John
Gibbons had returned from studies in the big Amst. and Martin Pearlman had
also arrived in our midst from the same spot.  No doubt Frank was aware of
others due to his other life as an amateur fiddler as well as friend to
Leonhardt, the Kuijkens, etc.  Don't know if he made this up on the spot,
but I wouldn't be surprised.  Said he, "The way things are going, soon
we'll have to change the name to Bosterdam".  Truer words...
 
Hendrik
 
 
>What are the characteristics of the "Amsterdam " style and who are some of the
>chief practitioners?
>I think I know the answer to this one,  but would like to here someone else's
>description.
>
>
>
>Nicholas Good