Leonhardt Consort

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Gustav Leonhardt, founder and director of the ensemble named after him

The Leonhardt Consort was a baroque orchestra that was founded by Gustav Leonhardt in 1955 and had an expanded line-up until 1990. Musicians from the Netherlands formed the core of the ensemble, complemented by international artists. The ensemble specialized in baroque music in historical performance practice . It became known through the recordings of baroque chamber music that was rarely performed and the complete recording of the Bach cantatas .

history

The Leonhardt Consort was mainly headed by Gustav Leonhardt. This was preceded in 1954 by a composition with five instrumentalists (strings and woodwinds) and a harpsichord . This ensemble included Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord and viola da gamba) and his wife Marie Leonhardt (violin), Kees Otten and his wife Marijke Ferguson (recorders) and Hans Bol (violoncello and viola da gamba). From 1955 to 1957 it was transformed into a purely string ensemble with harpsichord accompaniment. It consisted of the couple Leonhardt, Antoinette van den Hombergh (violone), Wim ten Have and Lodewijk de Boer (viola) and Dijck Koster (cello), occasionally supplemented by Jaap Schröder (violin) and Alfred Deller (countertenor).

The main focus of the repertoire was initially on early Baroque works from the 17th century: Samuel Scheidt , Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and English composers such as Henry Purcell and William Lawes , seldom performed or a number of previously unpublished works. Since there was only a small audience for the music performed at the time, museums, galleries and castles were the first venues.

In a second phase from 1957 to around 1972, the core string ensemble was supplemented by other musicians. The program included high baroque works by Johann Sebastian Bach , Georg Philipp Telemann and Domenico Scarlatti, music by Claudio Monteverdi and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . With the growing international fame of Gustav Leonhardt followed tours abroad, bigger concerts and recordings. Eduard Melkus and Alice Harnoncourt (viola) and their husband Nikolaus Harnoncourt (cello) and Michel Piguet (oboe) performed with the Leonhardt Consort. Marie Leonhardt later became concert master and there was a close cooperation with Frans Brüggen , Anner Bylsma and the brothers Sigiswald Kuijken and Wieland Kuijken .

Together with the Alarius Ensemble , the Leonhardt Consort formed the core of the La Petite Gang , founded in 1972, but remained in its expanded form until 1990. Since the 1970s, the focus has been on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach: a complete recording of his harpsichord concerts , the St. Matthew Passion (conducted by Johan van der Meer ) and the Brandenburg Concertos . In cooperation with the Concentus Musicus Vienna under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, all of Bach's church cantatas were recorded at Teldec from 1971 to 1990 with the participation of various soloists and choirs . The completion of this project also marked the end of the ensemble.

literature

  • Peter Watchorn: Isolde Ahlgrimm, Vienna and the Early Music Revival . Ashgate Publishing, Ashgate 2007, ISBN 0-7546-5787-6 , pp. 18 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leonhardt, Gustav Maria . In: Don Michael Randel (Ed.): The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music . Belknap Press, Cambridge / MA 1996, ISBN 0-674-37299-9 , pp. 498 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ The Leonhardt Consort - The second phase 1955–1972, Part 1 , accessed on June 25, 2016.
  3. ^ Early Music World: An interview with Gustav Leonhardt , seen November 28, 2011.
  4. ^ The Leonhardt Consort: the early days - with recorder pioneer Kees Otten , accessed on June 25, 2016.
  5. ^ The Leonhardt Consort - The second phase 1955–1972, Part 2 , accessed June 25, 2016.