Leonhardt-Consort, also known as the Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble, was a group of instrumentalists which its director, the keyboard player

Gustav Leonhardt Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments. Le ...

founded in 1955 to play

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transit ...

. The Consort was active until around 1990, although some members including Leonhardt himself continued to perform after that date. The ensemble was based in the Netherlands, although it included people whom Leonhardt knew from Vienna, where he taught at the Academy of Music at the beginning of the 1950s. When it was founded the ensemble consisted of Leonhardt, his wife Marie (a violinist) and other string players. It expanded to include wind players such as Frans Brüggen. From early in the ensemble's history they collaborated with singers such as the counter-tenor Alfred Deller. The music of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

was central to the work of Leonhardt and his ensemble. In collaboration with the

Concentus Musicus Wien Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW) is an Austrian baroque music ensemble based in Vienna. The CMW is recognized as a pioneer of the period-instrument performance movement. History Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt co-founded the CMW in 1953, ...

, conducted by

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt or historically Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; () (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music ...

, they recorded from 1971 to 1990 a complete set of

Bach cantatas This is a sortable list of Bach cantatas, the cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His almost 200 extant cantatas are among his important vocal compositions. Many are known to be lost. Bach composed both church cantatas, most of them for ...

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in whic ...

s, the Teldec set. The ensemble participated in Bach's ''

St Matthew Passion The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It se ...

'' with the Groningse Bachvereniging, conducted by Johan van der Meer. They recorded all his harpsichord concertos and the

Brandenburg Concertos The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1046–1051), are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, MacDonogh, Giles. ''Frederick the Great: A Life in De ...

. They also recorded works by William Lawes and Henry Purcell.

References

External links

Gustav Leonhardt
bach-cantatas.com

Early Music World: {{Authority control Dutch musical groups Early music consorts Musical groups established in 1955 1955 establishments in the Netherlands

See also

References

External links