Nikollaus Harnoncourt

Something new is always to be expected whenever Nikolaus Harnoncourt turns his attention to an important piece of music. In recent years he has been giving audiences a fresh view on some of the masterpieces of Romantic and late-Romantic music. His account of Brahms’ German Requiem is based on a thorough study of the composer’s ideas on how it should be performed.

The music on this CD was originally released in 1966, when Harnoncout's approach of recording baroque music on period instruments was still relatively new. Some of those early productions sound prim and academic. Not this one. The music sounds fresh and even modern. Though composed in the second decade of the 18th century, these baroque concertos are already close to the music of the coming "enlightened" period. They explain why along with Bach and Händel, Telemann was considered one of the leading composers of his time.

Of the two oratorios Haydn wrote in his old age The Creation is the more dramatic and immediate while The Seasons is more idyllic. It’s also a good deal longer, which to some extent explains why The Creation is regularly performed while its country cousin is a comparatively rare visitor to the concert hall. There is no denying that the later work contains a lot of good music and has a more folksy character; Austrian folk music is never far away. It is also has a more leisurely pace with long stretches of admittedly beautiful but slow and restrained music. There are moments of drama also, for example the end of part II, Summer (CD1 tracks 16 – 18), where in the recitative the soloists build up the tension.

Filmed in Vienna's Grosser Musikvereinssaal in the early 1980s, this fabled rendering of Mozart's complete violin concertos appears on DVD for the first time. Premier violinist Gidon Kremer unites with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker in a tribute to the musical genius Harnoncourt deems "the most Romantic composer of all".

TDK presents a truly new way of looking at La clemenza di Tito with this famous and star-studded production from the Salzburg Festival 2003. Here Nikolaus Harnoncourt, renowned for his analytical approach to the search for the core of the music, interprets Mozart’s last opera. Martin Kušej, who is acclaimed for his theatre productions directs the production. Nikolaus Harnoncourt identifies with Mozart’s score as both an extremely knowledgeable musician and a conductor who invariably plays an active part in helping to shape the drama. Together with the Vienna Philharmonic, he savours the miracles of Mozart’s late work, bringing out its instrumental colours and effects and at the same time stimulating his singers while proving a solicitous accompanist.

Für ihn war Musik „Klangrede“, die uns auch nach jahrhundertelanger Vertrautheit noch eine Menge zu sagen hat. Als der Dirigent Nikolaus Harnoncourt am 5. März starb, verlor die Welt eine Musikerpersönlichkeit, die wie keine andere das Repertoire von Bach bis Gershwin, von Monteverdi bis Bruckner völlig neu zu beleuchten verstand. Lange war Harnoncourt mit seinem Ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien dem einstigen Warner-Label Teldec verbunden.

A noteworty addition to our retrospective of recordings of Bruckner, recorded live from the Royal Concertgebouw and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Although the works of Bruckner weren't the core of Harnoncourt's repetoire, the conductor would take it up in the later years of his career, being the most modern of his recordings. His renditions amassed great praise and he was considred as one of the greatest Bruknerians of his time.

Mozart's best-known opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) opened a series of new productions at the 2012 Salzburg Festival. Legendary maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducted his orchestra, the Concentus Musicus Wien, performing the Salzburg Festival's first-ever presentation of Die Zauberflöte on period instruments.

Goldener Saal des Wiener Musikvereins, im Frühling 2014. Ein seltenes, ein einmaliges Zusammentreffen. Zwei sehr unterschiedliche Superstars de r Klassik entdecken neu die Klavierkonzerte Nr. 17 und 24 von Mozart: Weltstarpianist Lang Lang, Alte -Musik -Legende und Doyen der historischen Aufführungspraxis Nikolaus Harnoncourt gemeinsam mit – nicht zu vergessen – den Wiener Philharmonikern. Ein Ferns ehteam begleitete vier Tage lang die Vorbereitungen, die Proben, die Aufnahmesitzungen und die Diskussionen, kurz – den kompletten künstlerischen Schaffensprozess, an dessen Ende ein vielbejubeltes Bestselleralbum entstand.