Well, quite.

Philip Pickett is, I'd guess, about 10 years older than me: an age-gap that means that he has been an established upholder of Early Music practice for as long as I have known anything about it. 'Iconoclast' would hardly be le mot juste, when I recall all the New London Consort concerts I attended in the 1980s....

I assumed the tag was just one more manifestation of the old debate about historically certifiable 'authenticity' versus the more subjective 'historically informed performance', until I tried a quick Google and found umpteen entries pairing his name with that word. I still don't think it's the right word, mind, merely the current vogue among concert blurb-writers* .

[* speaking of whom, the National Theatre's lot describe the New Scorpion Band as a 'folk ethnic combo of five'. Would that tempt you to attend?!]

There are plenty of accurate descriptions of Philip Pickett's performance style that spring to my mind, and doubtless to yours too. Speaking for myself, sticking circus performers on to a concert stage may be many things – and good or bad, depending on whether the experiment works in context – but iconoclastic? Not really.