Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012)

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Gustav Leonhardt (Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ)
Born: May 30, 1928 - Graveland (near Hilversum), Holland
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 Bach in the early 1950’s. 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 Bach’s 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 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 Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1971 Gustav Leonhardt and Harnoncourt jointly undertook a project, completed in 1990, to record all Bach’s sacred cantatas. Leonhardt’s performances, in which his Leonhardt Consort provided the orchestral nucleus, are elegantly shaped and often more restrained in expression than those of Harnoncourt. Gustav Leonhardt edited Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge, pieces by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and other works.
More Pictures -1
Source: Oxford Composer Companion - J.S. Bach (1999); Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Classical Musicians (1997) Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2001); Dr. Graziano Fronzuto (February 2002)
Gustav Leonhardt: Short Biography | Recordings of Vocal Works: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Recordings of Instrumental Works Discussions of Vocal Recordings: BWV 232 - Leonhardt | BWV 244 - Leonhardt Reviews of Instrumental Recordings: Bach’s Inventions & Sinfonias from Leonhardt | Leonhardt’s Goldberg on Vanguard Discussions of Instrumental Recordings: GV BWV 988 - G. Leonhardt  General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 Table of recordings by BWV Number
Links to other Sites
Gustav Leonhardt (Allied Artists) Gustav Leonhardt - Biography (Sony Classical) Gustav Leonhardt (biography) [Portuguese] Discographie de Gustav Leonhardt Gustav Leonhardt [Italian] An interview with Gustav Leonhardt by Jan-Piet Knijff Gustav Leonhardt	Arteduemila: Gustav Leonhardt [Italian] BRAAVO! - Gustav Leonhardt Biographie de Gustav Leonhardt avec gold-music.com [French] AMARCORDES - Artistes - Leonhardt [French] Le Monde.fr : Gustav Leonhardt parachève sa légende [French] Gustav Leonhardt (JRP Dynu) [French]

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Leohnardt

Laurent Planchon wrote (March 4, 1998):
< I followed with a great interest your contributes about the Cantatas recordings, and hope to read more about this. I've noticed that nobody (since I'm member of the list) did any distinction between Harnoncourt and Leonhart. Despite their collaboration for the Cantatas recording, their style of interpretation is IMO quite different. >
Although I usually like what they both do, I also sense a big difference in their ways of playing this music. And this is also one reason why I treasure this integral set so much. To my ears, Leohnardt is much more contemplative, introvert and intimate, while Harnoncourt insists on the exaltation, exuberance and drama. One of the things I like a lot in the contribution of Leohnardt in the cantatas set, is that he often used Max Van Egmond as bass, who was (IMHO) much "better" than any of the other Basses that Harnocnourt used (except Huttenlocher maybe). There are so many other things I could say about these cantatas and the performances (like I don't think that anybody has matched Kurt Equiluz yet), but I will keep it for later.

As far as Harnoncourt is concerned, he is probably - like everybody - not always at the top, but the level of his musicianship is already so high, compared to the others that I don't really care. A bad recording from Harnoncourt is often much better than a good recording by Pinnock or Gardiner for instance (at least in Bach).

The Brandbourg concerti from Leohnardt are indeed very fine (you cannot beat the ratio quality/price for sure), but I am not sure whether they are the 'bests' (if such a thing as the best recording exists). The competition is rather intense (MAK, Harnoncourt, for instance), but they sure are one of the best choice around IMHO.

Terry Rodgers wrote: 
I have to jump in here and say--especially after my enthusiastic experience with Rilling's interpretations of Bach cantatas--that this morning before work, I put on Leonhardt's version of Cantata BWV 114 and was soon ready to jump out of my skin--the sketchy approach, with notes treated as brushstrokes, the emphasis on swooping into notes and then as quickly easing out of them--all that makes me crazy. I guess matters of taste are totally absolute, and no one can ever be talked out what he likes--or dislikes--or rather, there is a slight chance one may come to like something one dislikes a wee bit more, but I doubt if, for me, my dislike of the Leonhardt/Harnoncourt/Gardiner approach will ever modify a great deal. I may have been the culprit who uttered the word "frivolous" with regard to Gardiner-type interpretations. I'm sorry if people are offended. I disagree with people who think Bach should be treated lightheartedly (I'm thinking of several posts I've recently read); I regard Bach as altogether a "heavy" man (the fact that he sired 21 children to me is Heavy). I certainly believe, having last night heard a most unbearable performance of BWV 198, conductor Beringer, on Koch label (in the Gardiner/Leonhardt, etc. tradition), that BWV 198 deserves a certain degree of ponderousness, slowness, contemplativeness. It is very "heavy." Or, as we would have said in the sixties, Bach had "soul."

Bob Halliday wrote (March 6, 1998):
I emphatically agree with Terry Rogers as concerns tempo in Cantata BWV 198. It is, after all, a funeral cantata, and I have been puzzled at the tendency in recent recordings to take what sounds like an inappropriately sprightly approach in the great opening chor