Nowadays this is all taken for granted. The classical music market is populated by whole droves of ensembles producing "original" sound, young musicians demonstrate their mastery on period instruments, and the term "Klangrede" [music as speech] has long become everyday usage. In 1953, when the cellist Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his wife Alice, a violinist, began a private artistic experiment together with a handful of interested colleagues, Early Music was uncharted territory. For four years, Harnoncourt and his friends rehearsed in their living-room, researching musical material and instruments, techniques and sounds until they were ready to venture into public performance. Insatiable curiosity, unseen assiduity and inexhaustible devotion to an idea whose success was unforeseeable characterised the early days, during which the Concentus Musicus of Vienna developed into an ensemble which had a determining influence on period style. This book is intended to bring to life fifty years of adventure, during which a conspiracy of highly specialised musicians set new standards with each stage of their development, making interpretative history. Milan Turković, a member of Concentus, and Monika Mertl, Harnoncourt's biographer, examine all these various events in a balanced view from both inside and out. A CD with commentary by Nikolaus Harnoncourt accompanies the text.

Born in the year of the “Great Comet”, the path of this child prodigy from Raidling, Burgenland first led to Vienna and later Paris, the Mecca of the musical world at the time. There, Franz Liszt became highly successful as a piano virtuoso and led the life of a sought-after bohemian. Always searching for success as a composer, Liszt’s torn inner state marked his artistic development as much as his love affairs. After concert tours through all of Europe, he was appointed director of Weimar’s court orchestra, where he helped Richard Wagner’s opus achieve a breakthrough. Jan Jiracek von Arnim embarks on a fascinating journey exploring the composer’s life. He follows Liszt’s years on the road as a virtuoso, visionary, musical pioneer, superstar and soul-searcher as he takes a closer look at the person and musician. The result is this magnificent portrait of an exceptional artist.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt devoted himself to the study of early music, the way it is played and the sound of period instruments from an early age. In 1953 he founded the famous Concentus Musicus with his wife Alice and other musicians. This was to provide a forum for his work on period instruments and the historic performance practice of renaissance and baroque music. It was not until four years later that the Concentus Musicus first performed in public. Alice Harnoncourt has brought together the unpublished diary entries and notes of her husband, which recount his explorations on the trail of early musical sounds. It is a fascinating and entertaining journey, during which Harnoncourt had to accomplish much to listen his way towards the original period sound.