Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt was an Austrian conductor, choirmaster, musicologist, cellist, viol player, and music writer. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement. Born in Berlin on December 6, 1929, he was raised in Graz and studied music in Vienna. He came from an aristocratic family; his mother, Countess Ladislaia von Meran, was a great-granddaughter of Archduke John of Austria.
Harnoncourt played cello in the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 1952 to 1969. In 1953, he and his wife, violinist Alice Harnoncourt, founded Concentus Musicus, an ensemble specializing in early instruments; the orchestra began public performances in 1957. He led and conducted the ensemble, and played baroque cello and viola da gamba. In 1954, he also performed as a cellist with the Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble on recordings of Bach's cantatas Nos. 54 and 170, conducted by Gustav Leonhardt.
Harnoncourt made his opera-conducting debut at La Scala in Milan in 1970, conducting Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland. From 1970 to 1990, he and Leonhardt recorded all of Bach's church cantatas. Harnoncourt also worked with other European orchestras, including the Concertgebouw Orchestra. His repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Dvořák, Bruckner, Berg, Bartók, and Mendelssohn to Salieri. His recordings included Bach's gamba sonatas and harpsichord concertos, Schubert's symphonies, Mozart's piano concertos, Beethoven's piano concertos, and Schumann's piano and violin concertos.
He published books and musicological essays, including Music as Speech: Paths to a New Understanding of Music (1982), The Musical Dialogue: Thoughts on Monteverdi, Bach, and Mozart (1984), Baroque Music Today: Music as Speech (1988, co-written with Reinhard Pauly), and The Power of Music: Two Speeches (1993). His wife Alice was a violinist, and their daughter Elisabeth von Magnus is a flutist and opera singer. Harnoncourt also acted as Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Jean-Marie Straub's film The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1967).
His honors included the Erasmus Prize (1980), the Sonning Award (1993), the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Conductor (1995), the Robert Schumann Prize (1997), the Hans von Bülow Medal (1999), a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance (2001), the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2002), the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy (2005), the Leipzig Bach Medal (2007), the Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (2012), and the Romano Guardini Prize (2012). He also received the Styrian Ring of Honour and honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the Salzburg Mozarteum. A 2010 BBC Music Magazine poll of 100 conductors placed him fifth among its 20 greatest conductors of all time, and he was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Harnoncourt died on March 5, 2016, in St. Georgen im Attergau, Austria.