Gustav Leonhardt (Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ) - Short Biography

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Gustav Leonhardt (Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ)

Born: May 30, 1928 - Graveland (near Hilversum), the Netherlands
Died: January 16, 2012 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The eminent Dutch organist, harpsichordist, conductor and pedagogue, Gustav (Maria) Leonhardt, studied organ and harpsichord with Eduard Müller at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1947 to 1950.

Gustav Leonhardt made his debut in as a harpsichordist in Vienna in 1950. After studying musicology there, he served as professor of harpsichord at the Academy of Music from 1952 to 1955. He was professor of harpsichord at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1954. He was also active as a church organist there.

Gustav Leonhardt made his first recordings of solo harpsichord music by J.S. Bach in the early 1950痴. These quickly established his reputation as an outstanding Bach interpreter. In 1954, with his Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble, he collaborated with the English counter-tenor Alfred Deller in recordings of J.S. Bach痴 Cantata BWV 54 and BWV 170. This early essay in historically aware performance style (HIP) - the ensemble included his wife Marie and Eduard Melkus (violins), Alice Hoffelner (viola), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (cello), and Michel Piguet (oboe) - may be justly considered an important torch-bearer in the new paths soon to be taken in Baroque interpretations. Since then Leonhardt has performed and recorded all the major solo harpsichord music of J.S. Bach. He made numerous tours of Europe and North America, mainly appearing as harpsichordist. He also led his own Leonhardt-Consort (replacing the Baroque Ensemble) on tours from 1955. An interesting curiosity about Gustav Leonhardt is that he was the main actor in the movie "Diary of Anna Magdalena Bach" (1967), playing and performing and above all personifying J.S. Bach.

In 1971 Gustav Leonhardt and Harnoncourt jointly undertook a project, completed in 1990, to record all J.S. Bach痴 sacred cantatas. Leonhardt痴 performances, in which his Leonhardt-Consort provided the orchestral nucleus, are elegantly shaped and often more restrained in expression than those of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Gustav Leonhardt edited J.S. Bach痴 Die Kunst der Fuge, pieces by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and other works.

More Photos 1 | More Photos 2

Sources:
Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach (1999)
Baker痴 Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2001); Dr. Graziano Fronzuto (February 2002)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

Works

Jürgen Jürgens

Organ, Harpsichord

Member of Concerto Amsterdam:
L-2 (1966-1967) BWV 27, BWV 118, BWV 158
[L-6] (1966): BWV 198

Jürgen Jürgens

Organ

Member of Leonhardt-Consort:
[L-5] (1963): BWV 106, BWV 182
[L-1] (1964): BWV 18, BWV 152

Franzjosef Maier

Harpsichord

Member of Collegium Aureum
[C-3] (1968, 1966): BWV 211, BWV 209