# Nikolaus Harnoncourt



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

How popular is this conductor? I am adoring his Beethoven Symphony Cycle and think he is just fantastic. Such power!


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

He is very popular with me! Hope you have seen some of his rehearsals. Search youtube!


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2020)

Very popular with me as well. From Bach to Bartok, many fresh insights and interpretations.


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

Considering he's number 5 on this list, I'd say very.

http://www.classical-music.com/article/20-greatest-conductors-all-time


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Not being a fan of pre-Beethoven music too much, I never bought that many of his recordings. But when he turned his attention to Beethoven and beyond...wow! He was terrific. That COE Beethoven cycle is one of my favorites as the the Missa Solemnis and piano concerto recordings. The Violin Concerto I was less impressed with. But Harnoncourt also made a superior Dvorak New World Symphony that you should hear. Another work that I treasure dearly is Franz Schmidt's massive oratorio, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln. Harnoncourt made a magnificent recording of it...and well he should, since he himself sang in the choir for many performances in his youth. Strangely, that recording was pulled from US distribution and never made it to the shelves - Berkshire had the lot already. So successfully conducting early baroque all the way through a modern 20th choral masterpiece - not a bad reputation for a conductor to have.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

Captainnumber36 said:


> How popular is this conductor? I am adoring his Beethoven Symphony Cycle and think he is just fantastic. Such power!


I have it too. Owning so many great individual works it is hard to simply say this is all this and that. I have my favorites and I like certain aspects of COE Harnocourt versions. Will revisit soon and maybe will like it more as I plan to listen to alot of Beethoven this year. Over the last 2 hours I listen to Beethoven 2020 keyboard works 2..DG and Decca labels...early works and some late works...This is what I mean, there is so much of Beethoven I have not really heard enough of. One cannot take it for granted.

I am a believer that each person must experience each and every work and not worry about what magazines, reviews, and the like say about this or that version. Too many people jump on musical bandwagons and I prefer to go at it at my own pace.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

https://www.talkclassical.com/26816-harnoncourt-scary.html?highlight=Nikolaus+Harnoncourt

https://www.talkclassical.com/29443-nikolaus-harnoncourt.html?highlight=Nikolaus+Harnoncourt

https://www.talkclassical.com/58567-about-harnoncourt.html?highlight=Nikolaus+Harnoncourt


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Always intriguing, sometimes revelatory conductor.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

There are many recordings of his that are among my favourites for their works. From his earlier days much of his Bach and some of his Handel have yet to be bettered IMO. More recently he has given us great Haydn, Brahms and, as you note, Beethoven. I don't always enjoy his Mozart - it is at least stimulating but often lacks the geniality that I feel the best Mozart has. 

Some have been baffled by his ability to produce very different interpretations of a piece on different days. His recordings with the Vienna Concentus Musicus are often quite different to those he made with modern orchestras. It can be like two different conductors and I often really love both or them! His Schubert symphonies made with the Berlin Phil late in his life (a very major achievement IMO and quite unlike what has become the standard approach to the earlier symphonies) are very different to those he made earlier with the Concertgebouw, which were in themselves quite different to anyone else's (although perhaps occasionally a little too dour).


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Do yourself a favor and hear his Haydn, with the Royal Concertgebouw. I don't know what he does but he makes these symphonies sound massive and intense.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

There is another side to this conductor that is not so popular. Try his Dvoark Symphony 8 to hear it.

I spent lots of time with many of his recordings, liked some, didn't like some, and in the main he did not register with me. Part of it was the music he recorded (mainly Romantic) and part was his style, a combination of Germanic power and period performance which to me seemed a strange pairing, almost like Herbert von Karajan and Roger Norrington became one person.

The most memorable piece I can recall was a Schubert mass and perhaps the four Dvorak tone poems on horror themes. This was always balanced by disappointments in Bruckner, Haydn and others. I almost always thought his recordings over-considered (especially by The Penguin Guide) and not as good as others I knew. None of his recordings remain in my library.

He was among the first to employ period performance technique by using period instruments. His famous early 1960s Brandenburg concertos are a benchmark in PPP. Many of the players had to borrow instruments from museums for those recordings.

One thing is certain about Harnoncourt: he wasn't bland or forgettable.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Captainnumber36 said:


> How popular is this conductor? I am adoring his Beethoven Symphony Cycle and think he is just fantastic. Such power!


I have the symphony cycle which I love but love other recordings too


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Captain, his Beethoven piano concertos cycle with Pierre-Laurent Aimard is supposed to be very good too. Perhaps worth exploring.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Yes, it is a good one. Aimard was initially a reluctant partner because he felt he would have nothing to add to the many recordings that were already out there. But it turns out that he did.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Big shout out for his Schubert (both) and Schumann too. Like many have said, the good thing about Harnoncourt are his recordings were rarely dull (even if you didn't like them).


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

Love his work. Bohm, Karajan, and Harnoncourt begin and end my Beethoven listening. Sometimes I listen to various HIP Beethoven but I've found Harnoncourt derives the best of HIP while still using modern orchestras. I'll have to try his Haydn.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Not a big fan of his (his Beethoven cycle was my initial exposure to Beethoven's symphonies in my first days of listening to CM, and I didn't see what was so spectacular about Beethoven until I heard more "old-style" performances), but I do like the set of LvB piano concerti with Aimard and his St. Matthew Passion, the only HIP performance of that work that I have found some enjoyment from. I have heard that his Bach cantatas are done with boys' choirs, so I've been too afraid to listen to them.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I was listening to his Bach Cantatas and was happy with what I heard.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

flamencosketches said:


> Do yourself a favor and hear his Haydn, with the Royal Concertgebouw. I don't know what he does but he makes these symphonies sound massive and intense.


This is great! Thank you. Nikolaus Harnoncourt is making me enjoy music I previously thought was mediocre.


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## Fredrikalansson (Jan 29, 2019)

Agree with most people about Harnoncourt, except for his opera recordings. I always felt there was something a bit too self-conscious about his interpretations, as if he was underlining a point of view three times when once would have been enough. Didn't much care for his Verdi Requiem either.

His Haydn symphonies have been mentioned, but his recordings of the masses, Seven Last Words and Stabat Mater are right up there with the best. His later Bach Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio are very fine. And he had a real genius for Dvorak: try and hear his Slavonic Dances with the COE. Best since Sejna and the Czech Philharmonic.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Fredrikalansson said:


> Agree with most people about Harnoncourt, except for his opera recordings. I always felt there was something a bit too self-conscious about his interpretations, as if he was underlining a point of view three times when once would have been enough. Didn't much care for his Verdi Requiem either.
> 
> His Haydn symphonies have been mentioned, but his recordings of the masses, Seven Last Words and Stabat Mater are right up there with the best. His later Bach Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio are very fine. And he had a real genius for Dvorak: try and hear his Slavonic Dances with the COE. Best since Sejna and the Czech Philharmonic.


I wasn't enjoying his Figaro, so you may be on to something with his opera.


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