Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Le baiser des Muses Conversation with Bertrand Dermoncourt. Preface by Gidon Kremer

10 × 19 cm 224 pages softback april 2021 retail price: 17 €

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2019) was a conductor. In 1953, he founded the Concentus Musicus Wien, a pioneering ensemble performing music with genuine period instruments. From the 1970s, he continued a prestigious career as guest conductor. In his lifetime he published, Le Discours musical and Le Dialogue musical (Gallimard, 1984 and 1985), as well as La Parole musicale (Actes Sud, 2014).

Born in 1970, Bertrand Dermoncourt is a journalist, writer and director of music at Radio Classique. He has published a number of works including Tout Mozart (Robert Laffont, “Bouquins” collection, 2006) or Igor Stravinski (Actes Sud, 2013).

Le baiser des Muses

NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT

The kiss of the Muses

Conversation with Bertrand Dermoncourt

Preface by Gidon Kremer

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Austrian conductor, the “Karajan of baroque”, is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He put rhetoric back into the heart of aesthetic debate and spent his life shaking up traditions, borne on by his permanently alert critical perspective, a vital impulse for authenticity. Harnoncourt made his orchestra sit up and listen, he made them rethink the score in order to know and love it better. In our all too often artificial world, he was a rare model of dignity and ethics. This work brings his message back to life. In it he looks back over his career as conductor, justifies his choices and explains the reasons for his permanent quest. The interviews, some previously unpublished, have been edited and annotated in the aim of presenting readers with a coherent whole and a portrait of Harnoncourt as he was, a passionate and vibrant figure.