It is a  tremendous pleasure, as ever, to hear a recording on my husband Nikolaus Harnoncout's wonderful association with the chamber Orchestra of Europe again. One is immediately seized by an incredible energy - we can sense the musician's enthusiasm and profound reciprocal understanding, their ability to use their knowledge to tease out the meaning and the colourful language of this music. These recordings are veritable treasures and give listeners an immediate impression of the magic of these concerts. We can hear the works infused with new life, with their fresh colours offering a genuine new listening experience. (Translation Saul Lipetz)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt was a musician who infuriated all those who thought that music from the early Romantic period went a certain way: the way they had heard it played at conventional concerts all their lives. They knew how a Schubert symphony "goes". They could anticipate each tempo, feel the balance in phrasing and between the instruments like a comfort blanket. Unfortunately for them, but most fortunately for Schubert, that was of no interest to Harnoncourt at all.
With the Chamber Orchestra of Europe he set about examining everything afresh. To adopt an analogy, whereas most conductors are like gallery curators, hanging the pictures in familiar places, occasionally pulling one out of storage, he was a restorer - stripping off decades of old grime and varnish, getting down to the original brush strokes, using infrared to look under the finish at the artist's sketches and first thoughts. After he had finished with it, a symphony was a bright surprise; disconcerting, not to everyone’s taste, but no longer familiar orto be heard in the background.
Players he worked with in 1988 talk about the way he changed their perceptions to such an extent that they thought they were misreading the music, coming in all wrong. They found out more about their instruments - not just about early 19th-century practice but about extending the limits of their own technique. Harnoncourt wanted them to discover Schubert’s work for themselves, ignoring the accretions of previous performance tradition.
He also had a certain ancestral right to explore and record the music in Graz, where he had spent much of his childhood. In Schubert’s time, Harnoncourt's great-great-grandfather John was the Archduke there, ruling the Duchy of Styria with an enlightened touch that allowed him to navigate all the political upheavals of the first part of that turbulent century. Graz always held Schubert in high regard, making him an honorary member of the Styrian Music Society as early as 1823. Perhaps it was that sense of authentic heritage that allowed Harnoncourt to insist on an interpretation that reflected the innovation in Schubert’s writing, rather than the tastes of Vienna a century and a half later.
His approach to the music was to rebuild it, testing and evaluating the contribution of each instrument to the whole tapestry, asking the players to take as many risks as they wanted, to see if it led them in new directions. He wanted Schubert’s music to be on the edge, to show why performers in the 1820s had found it so difficult to play and understand - and why the symphonies did not appeal to his contemporaries in the same way as the songs or the much safer choral pieces. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe players remember the heat, not only of the rehearsal room at the top of the Brandhot, but of the music-making, convincing them that this was not meant to be pleasant; that Schubert’s search for a route away from pain was a struggle that only found a sense of resolution after the music stopped.
Dane Roberts, Double Bass
Schubert, even more than Haydn or Beethoven (the first musical encounters with Nikolaus Harnoncourt) was, at this time, truly "the COE’s music". With Claudio Abbado we had already begun our in-depth survey of the Symphonies, which seemed practically composed for the COE; our size, our virtuosity, our collective sense of style and ensemble playing were all somehow seemingly predestined for this music.
I don`t think any one of us had encountered someone with such cultural and musical connections to the music of the Wiener Klassik as Nikolaus Harnoncourt. His strong roots in both Vienna and Graz influenced and enabled his musical insights and vision. He presented to us dimensions of these masterpieces we had not considered or did not know (or at least recognise).
He explained to us the relationship of words to Schubert’s music, both in the sense of folklore - Volkslieder and dances, for instance - but also in the sense of literature as in the story of Der Traum, the written dream description which became Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony (which we learned wasn't unfinished at all, but rather a tone poem, foreshadowing later Romantic traditions).
Nikolaus Harnoncourt also showed us how he saw and interpreted the "classic" melodies of Schubert and the (sometimes “problematic”) accompanimental figures thereof. There was never anything bland or stereotypical in his handling, which was often historically based but always tinged with fantasy and organic energy. Equally, he showed us the music was full of pain and drama - often severe - and how Schubert had gone to great lengths to make this clear in his scores. This was by no means just “beautiful” music.
The human side of our relationship with Nikolaus Harnoncourt was just developing in 1988, but there was already much humour, joy and love mixed in with the intense music-making. Around this time began also the realisation of what an enormous role Alice Harnoncourt played in this overall dynamic, musically as well as on a human level. Frau Harnoncourt, a highly gifted and successful musician, had a selfless style combined with great warmth and empathy. She, like her husband, always served the music rather than needing to project herself through it. At every rehearsal she was there, with a score, subtly controlling so many aspects of what was going on in the greater process. This aspect of any collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt can and should never be underestimated.
In a way, the Schubert project cemented the relationship "Harnoncourt-COE". The concerts were of an amazing intensity and joy.
That this should not end was more than self-evident for everyone involved, and this rightly became our framework and expectation for the next 30 or so years.

Elizabeth Wexler, Violin
For me, Harnoncourt and the COE were a dream combination, we lapped up all that he had to offer which for us was new, exciting and challenging. Meeting a piece for the first time with him was thrilling, almost as if it were modern and strange to our ears. Sometimes familiar music became so changed that we would get confused and play in the wrong place. Harnoncourt was always very happy when this happened, as if he’d taken us back to some unadulterated state, and we were players meeting Beethoven, Haydn or Schubert for the first time.
Rehearsals were full of stories and laughter, it was key that he had the full orchestra`s attention for the whole time, and he entertained and educated us at full throttle. The music we played was placed in its historical context and considered from the composer’s personal standpoint - for example, Beethoven`s changing attitude to Napoleon, or the threat of the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburgs - so that one simple trumpet motif would have terrified the audience. We felt that fear as we performed; concerts under Harnoncourt were electric.
The summer of the Schubert cycle was baking hot, but as ever Harnoncourt's charisma and energy were undiminished. I remember very well how he built the colours and texture of the strings. We began with the basses and cellos, and worked until they had captured the flavour of a good Austrian folk music downbeat. Then for the engine, violas and second violins, again carefully honed and then put together with the bass section. When we came to add the first violins, the anticipation in the orchestra was palpable, we had to sound exquisite!

Enno Senft, Principal Double Bass
This Schubert Symphony cycle was a major building block in the relationship between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the COE. We encountered a mind with an immediate musical and cultural connection to Schubert’s world, there was an almost tangible direct line. Harnoncourt’s understanding of the fusion between chamber and symphonic music in Schubert was tailor-made for the COE.
There were many descriptive and imaginative moments during the rehearsals that seemed like musical eye-openers. Like the searching opening bass motif in the slow movement of the Great C major, which after four rising attempts resigns itself back to the A where it began, to then give way to the main theme in the oboe. Like someone’s desperate plea. Or the high probability that a retold dream sequence of Schubert’s inspired the music and makes the “Unfinished” indeed complete. Even if you were sceptical, these ideas threw a completely new light on the music.

Stephen Stirling, French Horn
That cycle was life-changing for me.
A story I repeat ad nauseam to anyone that will listen is how Harnoncourt wanted us to take risks during the concert. Big ones. He said "and if it goes wrong in the concert I will give thanks to God - because I will know you are trying". This, to a French horn player, was mind-blowing. But the quote that I live and teach by was: "On the border between security and catastrophe lies beauty." The entire subject of art covered, in one sentence.

Julian Poore, Trumpet
Some of Harnoncourt's readings of the Schubert Symphonies were akin to religious experiences, notably the "Unfinished", the Fourth and the Great C major, but there was also an earthiness which prevented any sense of sentimentality. His research and arguments served to make the varied experiences of the music honest and a reflection of real life.

Joe Rappaport, Violin
As I remember, these were some of the most brilliant, exciting and moving concerts of our long and distinguished collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The intensity of his approach and vivid characterisation of every musical motive were a revelation for the orchestra, and our response to his demands of us was inspired by the relative freshness of our acquaintance but informed and nurtured by an already considerable body of performing experiences together. In short, a musical honeymoon!

Sally Pendlehury, Cello
The “Schubert Symphonies" was my first ever project with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. To say it completely changed my musical life would be an understatement.
I had never come across anyone quite like him (and haven’t since), each rehearsal felt like Eureka moment after Eureka moment, and his sometimes maniacal passion was utterly consuming.
His intent to release the inner voices and give meaning to every line of the score was for all of us liberating and visionary.
His empowerment of the bass end of the orchestra, insisting that those at the bottom should be equal in leading the way, was new and thrilling to many of us and has informed a generation of orchestral and chamber musicians who worked with him or in his wake.
The way he used imagery to ignite an idea or motive was legendary. On one occasion, feeling that the cello section were not engaged enough by a particular interrupted cadence, he suggested that “it should be as if you come down the stairs in the morning for your breakfast and open the door to your kitchen and there, standing in front of you, a huge locomotive”!
I’m eternally grateful to him for his unending passion, zeal and scholarship that lead to the heart of everything we performed with him. We were so very, very lucky.