Why Norrington is wrong on Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms

In an argument supporting the authentic instruments movement Roger Norrington used as a justification for a certain style in Beethoven that of course Beethoven was closer chronologically to Haydn than to Brahms. Unfortunately this is highly misleading as it implicitly believes all time has an equal impact. Haydn is a composer formed prior to the French Revolution. Beethoven is a composer formed during and after the impact of the French Revolution - Brahms is of course a post French Revolution composer. In years Haydn and Beethoven are closer together than Beethoven and Brahms, but in terms of the character of the world in which they lived Beethoven and Brahms are closer together than Haydn and Beethoven. This naturally does not 'justify' any post-Wagnerian style of Beethoven conducting, reasons that have been dealt with in another post http://blogger-ablog.blogspot.com/2008/06/hegel-and-authentic-instruments.html. It however means Norrington's statement is essentially misleading.