The eminent conductor has announced his withdrawal from the concert platform on the eve of his 86th birthday.

One of the world’s great doyens of authentic period baroque and classical music, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, has announced his retirement from the concert platform. The great conductor and founder of the revered Austrian Baroque orchestra, Concentus Musicus, celebrated his 86th birthday yesterday.

In a handwritten statement, inserted into the programme of a concert at the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna on Saturday evening, Harnoncourt said, “My bodily strength requires me to cancel my future plans.” The announcement was especially pertinent as Harnoncourt had been scheduled to conduct in the performances but had been forced to withdraw due to ill-health.

His heartfelt statement continued, “An unbelievably deep relationship has developed between us on the stage and you in the hall – we have become a happy community of pioneers!” The great conductor’s final farewell reflected the collegial spirit he was known for cultivating with his ensembles. As a cellist, he performed with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, but also simultaneously channeled his deep affinity and academic understanding of renaissance, baroque and early to mid classical repertoire into the period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus, which he founded in 1957.

In 1969 he left the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, partly because of personal differences between himself and the orchestra’s management, and devoted himself to his own ensemble. His insightful, highly informed interpretations attracted the attentions of many great orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. His superb accounts of the complete symphonies of Schubert, a composer whom Harnoncourt felt particularly close to, were released earlier this year on Berlin Philharmonic’s record label.