The Austrian cellist and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt was born in Berlin, grew up in Graz (Austria) and studied the cello in Vienna, where from 1952 to 1969 he was a cellist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
In 1953 Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his wife Alice Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus Wien as a specialist ensemble for the performance of early music on authentic instruments of Baroque and Classical music.
By 1957 he was giving regular concerts with the group, as well as making recordings of music from the 13th to the 18th century. As well as recording the Brandenburg Concertos (1964) and the Orchestral Suites (1966), which he directed from the cello or viola da gamba desk, Harnoncourt made highly acclaimed recordings of the St John Passion, the B minor Mass, the St Matthew Passion, and the Christmas Oratorio.
A major project, shared with Gustav Leonhardt, to record all J.S. Bach’s sacred cantatas was launched in 1971 and completed in 1990. Each director revealed his own distinctive approach in the series, with Harnoncourt the more demonstrative, exuberant, and mannerist in his musical expression.
Here is Nikolaus Harnoncourt to rehearse with these fortunate young musicians:
Are these performances available on CD format?