Nikolaus Hamoncourt, (Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d’Hamoncourt-Unverzagt), cellist and conductor, 1929-2016, was one of the most innovative and influential conductors of the second half of the 20th century, bringing the scholarship and sensibility of historical performance to the mainstream repertoire with sometimes controversial, but always illuminating results.
With the Concentus Musicus of Vienna (Wien), an ensemble he formed in the early 1950s, he recorded, in collaboration with his friend Gustav Leonhardt, the complete sacred cantatas of JS Bach and continued with the group in later years. But he also began to operate with modern instrumental ensembles, notably the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and, later, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, in classical and Romantic repertoire. Performances of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Dvorak, among others, were distinguished by their bracingly astringent qualities. While some found readings mannered and idiosyncratic, others relished their freshness and vigour. He made more than 500 recordings.
Born in Berlin into a noble family and brought up in Graz, Austria, Harnoncourt was descended from various Holy Roman emperors and other European royalty. His father, Eberhard, was an engineer and civil servant; his mother, Ladislaja Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was the granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke John. Harnoncourt was a cello pupil of Paul Grümmer and of Emanuel Brabec at the Vienna Music Academy. He also played the viola da gamba. In 1952 hejoined the Vienna Symphony Orchestra as a cellist, and although he remained there until 1969, he reacted strongly against both the military precision of conductors such as George Szell and the undifferentiated approach to early music then prevalent. Handel was played much like Brahms, he later said, and the result was “an unsorted blend of geniality, 19th-century tradition and ignorance”.
Within a year of joining the orchestra he formed a group of like-minded players, among them the violinist Alice Hoffelner, who led the ensemble and whom he married in 1953, to explore the use of original instruments and historically informed techniques in baroque music. The Concentus Musicus of Vienna gave no concerts for the first five years, but following a series of 12 public concerts in Vienna, record companies such as Telefunken, Vanguard and Deutsche Grammophon began to take notice. The first recording, in 1962, was of Purcell‘s Fantasias for viols (ATMCD 1522), after which came well-received recordings of Bach‘s Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites (Teldec, directed by Harnoncourt from the principal cello desk) and then the major choral works of Bach. The Bach cantata project (Teldec) with Leonhardt (1971-90) was a landmark in recordings, notable for its pioneering historical research - Hamoncourt was publishing books and articles then and went on to hold academic chairs at Salzburg University and at the Mozarteum, where he was professor of performance practice. It was also exceptional in replacing female voices with those of unbroken trebles, even in the solo movements.
The other notable achievement with the Concentus Musicus was the recording of Monteverdi’s three surviving operas (Warner): Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse and L’Incoronazione di Poppea. To these recordings, as to the highly acclaimed stage performances in Zurich (1975-9), he brought an austere but stylish and well-paced approach. Those qualities also characterised his readings of classical and romantic repertoire which he began undertaking with leading modern-instrument orchestras in the ensuing decades. A set of Beethoven symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on modern instruments sold spectacularly well and led to further offers, including a lifetime contract with Teldec, and New Year’s Day concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic.
There were ventures into the 20th century too, with Bartók and Berg featuring in his repertoire. In an interview in 2012 for Radio 3’s Music Matters, Hamoncourt revealed not only that had he had more time left to him he would have relished the challenge of Wagner, including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, (which he would have approached in the spirit of Offenbach-style operetta.) The latter was territory he inhabited very successfully, the minimal vibrato, measured tempi and taut rhythms of a Belle Héléne (Zurich, 1997) paying generous dividends in capturing the exhilaration of the score. In 2009 he surprised many with a recording made in Graz in his 80th year of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Harnoncouit’s long career coincided with radical developments in the performance of music of all eras. During this period, early music became more established and the distinction between historical and mainstream gradually faded. Harnoncourt was at the centre of this transformation. His career also coincided with the demise of the conductor as feared tyrant. To the end of his life he remained fundamentally opposed to the cult of the autocratic conductor - the only man he acknowledged as “maestro” was his hairdresser, he joked. His rehearsal process was collegiate, with musicians as partners.
Appearances in London in later years included a serene and moving performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in 2012. On that evening Hamoncourt was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s gold medal, a fitting tribute to a lifetime devoted to stretching artistic boundaries. He retired officially from the stage on 5 December 2015, because of declining health. His new Beethoven Symphonies No 4 and 5, recorded live in Vienna with the Concentus Musicus, more than 60 years since its formation, were released to great acclaim.