The conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt is dead. He died yesterday. He was the first pioneer of period-instruments for performances of the Baroque and Classic era. Monteverdi is the perfect way to remember his work as conductor.
>The celebrated Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt - considered to be the "pope" of the baroque music revival - has died in Vienna aged 86.
>A statement on his website said he "took his last breath peacefully surrounded by family".
>The Vienna Musikverein, home to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, said his death marked the end of an era.
>The conductor announced his retirement in a farewell letter in December, citing health reasons.
>"My physical capacities mean that I have to cancel all my upcoming projects," he wrote, saying he would not appear on the concert stage again.
>He penned the open letter to fans, who found it in the programme for a concert by the ensemble he founded, the Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW).
>Thomas Angyan, director of the Vienna Musikverein, said: "I did not think so little time would pass between his retirement and death. We must continue the musical legacy he leaves us."
>Harnoncourt's work was considered ground-breaking as he sought to interpret music as faithfully to the original as possible, while his ensemble was at the forefront in its use of period instruments.
>He was famed for his concern for historical detail and considered his conducting as alive and romantic, not a relic of history.
>Born to a granddaughter of a Habsburg Archduke and an Austrian count, Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt was born in Berlin and grew up in Graz, southern Austria.
>He studied the cello at Vienna's Academy of Music and joined the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1952, where he remained for 17 years.
>His intensive research into historical instruments and period performance practice led him to set up the CMW with his wife, Alice, in 1953.
>They began giving concerts in 1957 which were credited with reviving Europe's interest in renaissance, baroque and early classical music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Haydn.
>Harnoncourt began conducting opera and concert performances in the early 1970s and was considered one of the last great post-war Austrian conductors, alongside Herbert von Karajan, Karl Boehm and Carlos Kleiber.
>Among his acclaimed recordings were Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (1964) and a pioneering project to record all of Bach's cantatas which was launched in 1971 and completed in 1990.
>He went on to become one of the most recorded early-music conductors, although his repertoire later expanded to include 19th and 20th Century composers including Gershwin.
>He is survived by his wife and three children.
Sauce: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35739456