Works by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel make up the Easter Festival’s first choral concert, on 25 March, which will be conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the legendary pioneer of the authentic performance movement. But what makes something authentic? In his most recent interview, Harnoncourt shares a surprising answer.


Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has spent decades studying autograph scores and composers’ handwritten sketches in order to come as closely as possible in his performances to the true intentions of each work in question. But is this goal actually feasible in every case? In an interview with “Die Welt” that appeared on 6 January 2012, Harnoncourt frankly stated his position: “One need not play music the way Bach wrote it down. Indeed, sometimes the musical notation may not indicate the pitch, or the duration, or the tempo. Or take the issue of articulation: in most of his works Bach left no indications at all in the scores as to how they should be articulated. For some, he did. If I say that I have to restrict myself to the sources, then I need to play the former without articulation but the latter with it. But that makes absolutely no sense, because musically this is the same language. My hypothesis is that Bach worked with many pupils and students, and so he had to clarify the articulation to those who didn’t know how they should play. But if he had indicated precisely how to articulate in the manuscript to those who already knew how to do so, he would have offended them.” For Harnoncourt Bach is a jack-of-all-trades—and not just a master of sacred music: “When he composes ‘The Contest between Phoebus and Pan,’ religion is not mentioned. But this is a work of the deepest spiritual expression. Then again, there are cantatas that exhibit the purest sense of religion. Bach was prepared to represent every realm of human feeling. Whether in the secular cantatas, the Brandenburg Concertos, or in the solo instrumental suites–Bach left scarcely any branch of music untouched. If the Elector of Saxony at Dresden had accepted him as court composer, he would have also written Catholic liturgical music. And operas.”