Biography
Concentus Musicus Wien is a baroque music ensemble founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt in 1953. It generated the now well-established movement in performance and recordings to play early music historically informed on period instruments.
The original instrumentalists in the group came from the ranks of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. They gave their first public concert in 1957 in Vienna. In collaboration with the Leonhardt Consort, conducted by Gustav Leonhardt, they recorded from 1971 to 1990 Bach’s complete sacred cantatas.
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Honors and awards:
1990 and 1991, German Record Critics' Prize – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Lucio Silla and George Frideric Handel's oratorio Theodora, respectively
1990, Gramophone Award for Special Achievement – Recording of the complete Bach cantatas
1995, Cannes Classical Award – J.S. Bach's St John Passion (BWV 245)
1996–1997, top awards from three different French music publications – recordings of Mozart's Il re pastore, Antonio Vivaldi concertos, and J.S. Bach motets.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.