Initially I confess to being completely put off Nicky's Das Alte Werke recordings for Telefunken, largely because of the pompous, self-righteous palaver that this was the only way to play baroque music. This of course was complete humbug (to my ears, Nev and the ASMF thrashed the pants off Concentus Musicus Wien), and, it seems, just Telefunken puffery. To add to that, many of those recordings, with their scrawny sound and unsecure intonation, sounded as if they'd been made in Nicky's garden shed.
However, he was a pioneer and pioneers make all the mistakes from which others learn. It was the English ensembles, notably those of Pinnock, Hogwood and Gardiner, who took up the running and who made "original instrument" versions their own, largely obliterating the difference between them and "modern instrument" versions. I'm sure they would all acknowledge their debt to Harnoncourt.
Meanwhile, Nicky went on to mainstream works, delivering distinguished performances of operas and symphonies. His Beethoven symphony set with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is especially fine. The music world has lost another major figure.
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Nikolaus Harnoncourt 1929-2016
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