The 2005 Laureates / Arts and Philosophy Category / Music

In 1953, Mr. Nikolaus Harnoncourt organized the Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW) to perform early music. In the 1970s, the series of operas by Monteverdi that he conducted were received with great public acclaim. His performance appearances inlcude the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, starting in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Salzburg Festival.

Musician who restores the primary message behind classical music through the performance of original instruments

Mr. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a leading performer of early music reproduces the original sounds of early music by studying the historical context of a given piece. He also strives to unveil what the composer intended, bringing a fresh interpretation to the performances of music from the Classic and Romantic periods, as well as to modern and contemporary.

Mr. Harnoncourt is a gifted musician who has actively sought to recreate the original sounds of early musical compositions through a detailed analysis of their historical contexts. Music prior to the French Revolution functioned as a kind of language in the cultural environment. Over time, however, the European music community came to prefer superficially beautiful sounds and flamboyant techniques. What Mr. Harnoncourt has aimed for in this situation is the restoration of the glorious cultural position that music used to occupy. To achieve this lofty goal, he unveils what the composer intended by studying the historical context of a given piece of music, restoring the original instruments and investigating the original scores and practices of the period, including performing methods, the customs, and musical principles.

In addition to being a cellist in the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Harnoncourt has devoted himself to the study of early music and the collection of original instruments. In 1953, he, with his wife Alice Hoffelner, organized the Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW). After four years of preparation, CMW started to perform early music from the Baroque and the Renaissance periods in 1957. CMW then expanded their repertoire to include music from the Classic and the Romantic periods.

In 1971, he started to record all the Bach's cantatas with Mr. Gustav Leonhardt, that was widely accepted as the monumental work in the history of the early music performing movement which began in the early 1960s. In the mid-1970s, Mr. Harnoncourt joined forces with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle to stage a series of Monteverdi operas at the Zurich Opera House in a universally acclaimed cycle that contributed to a renaissance of Monteverdi's music. His interpretation of Mozart's and Haydn's orchestral music cycles with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was highly regarded not as a historically informed performance but from its creative performance. He conducted the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, together with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Apart from his performing, he is also involved in a broad range of activities, including presenting a lecture series at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, several books, for example, Musik als Klangrede - Wege zu einem neuen Musikverständnis (1982), and Der Musikalische Dialog (1984), and is the founding president of the styriarte Festival in Graz.

Mr. Harnoncourt is a musician who interprets music both from its theory and practice, who illustrates the modern society from the broad historical viewpoint, and who has redefined the role of music in extensive cultural meanings.

For more details, see the Achievements.