Monday 7 March 2016
The music world has lost a giant. Stockholm Early Music Festival joins the long list of mourners in deep sorrow commemorating the passing away of the Grand Old Man of early music, at least in physical form. Nikolaus Harnoncourt left us last Saturday (March 5th), 86 years old.
Harnoncourt’s significance as source and role model for the contemporary rebirth of early music cannot be overestimated. He is a concept for every music lover, the man who understood that early music sounds best when played on the instruments it was composed for. A legacy to manage whith honour, with all its artistic energy.
It is exactly Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt himself, that will open this year’s Stockholm Early Music Festival on the 2nd of June in the German Church, a unique chance to experience the maestro’s creation live in Sweden. We had of course wished that his physical capacity would have sufficed to accompany his loyal enseble to the country that honored him with the Polar Music Prize. Instead, his spirit will be able to express itself through period string and wind instruments and enrich the concert with a very special shimmer.
Peter Pontvik and the SEMF-team