Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, known for his historically informed performances.

He specialized in music of the Baroque period, but later extended his repertoire to include Classical and early Romantic works.

Among his best known recordings are those of Bach, whose 193 cantatas he recorded with Gustav Leonhardt.

Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt was born as an Austrian citizen in Berlin, Germany, in 1929.

Harnoncourt was a cellist with the Vienna Symphony from 1952 to 1969.

Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Wien, in 1953, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement.

In 1953, he founded the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien with his wife, Alice Hoffelner, whom he married during the year.

The Concentus Musicus Wien was dedicated to performances on period instruments.

He played the viola da gamba at this time, as well as the cello.

For the Telefunken (later Teldec) label, Harnoncourt recorded Baroque repertoire, beginning with the viol music of Henry Purcell, and extending to include works like Bach's The Musical Offering, Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Rameau's Castor et Pollux.

One of his final recordings with the Concentus Musicus Wien was of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5.

One reason that Harnoncourt left the Vienna Symphony was to become a conductor.

He also made the first recordings in historically informed performance of Bach's Mass in B minor (1968) and St Matthew Passion (1970).

Around 1970, Harnoncourt began conducting opera and concert performances, soon leading international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals.

He made his conducting debut at La Scala, Milan, in 1970, leading a production of Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria.

In 1971, Harnoncourt established a joint project with conductor Gustav Leonhardt to record all of J.S. Bach's cantatas.

Between 1987 and 1991, he conducted four new productions of Mozart operas at the Vienna State Opera (1987–91: Idomeneo; 1988–90: Die Zauberflöte; 1989: Die Entführung aus dem Serail; 1989–91: Così fan tutte).

The Teldec Bach cantata project was eventually completed in 1990 and was the only cantata cycle to use an all-male choir and soloist roster, with the exception of cantatas nos.

51 and 199, which were intended for a female soprano voice.

In 1992, Harnoncourt debuted at the Salzburg Festival conducting a concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

In the following years, he led several concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Concentus Musicus.

Harnoncourt also served as the conductor for major opera productions of the Festival: L'incoronazione di Poppea (1993), Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (1995 and 2006), Don Giovanni (2002, marking also Anna Netrebko's international breakthrough as Donna Anna, and 2003) and La clemenza di Tito (2003 and 2006), and Purcell's King Arthur (2004).

In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert.

Harnoncourt was also the author of several books, mostly on subjects of performance history and musical aesthetics.

In 2001, an acclaimed and Grammy Award winning recording of the St Matthew Passion with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir was released, which included the entire score of the piece in Bach's own hand on a CD-ROM.

This was his third recording of the work.

Harnoncourt later performed with many orchestras performing on modern instruments, but retaining considerations for historical authenticity in terms of tempi and dynamics, among other issues.

He also expanded his repertoire, continuing to play the baroque works, but also championing the Viennese operetta repertoire.

He made a benchmark recording of Beethoven's symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE), and recorded Beethoven's piano concertos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the COE.

Harnoncourt was a guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic and made several recordings with the orchestra.

He directed the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day concerts in 2001 and 2003.

In 2012, Harnoncourt conducted a new production of Die Zauberflöte staged by Jens-Daniel Herzog.

His Austrian mother, Ladislaja née Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was the great-granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke Johann, the 13th child of Emperor Leopold II, making him a descendant of Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty.

His father, Eberhard Harnoncourt, born de la Fontaine Graf d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, was an Austrian engineer working in Berlin who had two children from a previous marriage.

Two years after Nikolaus's birth, his brother Philipp was born.

The family eventually moved to Graz, Austria, where Eberhard had obtained a post in the state government (Landesregierung) of Styria.

Harnoncourt was raised in Graz, and studied music in Vienna.

During his youth, he served in the Hitler Youth under duress, where, as he noted:

"If you didn't go there every Wednesday and Saturday, the Hitler Youth police would come, fetch you, cut your hair and toss you into a group with other difficult ones who were treated terribly."

At the Vienna Music Academy, Harnoncourt studied cello with Paul Grümmer and Emanuel Brabec, and also learned viola da gamba.