Nikolaus Harnoncourt - The Complete Sony Recordings

Complete contents follow this reviewNikolaus Harnoncourt was a pioneer. It's difficult for a generation of classical music listeners to grasp just how many musicians, critics and academics considered Baroque era music (never mind earlier periods in music history) a vast unknown whose performance rules were lost in the mists of antiquity and so was impossible to perform plausibly. The very earliest recording of Vivaldi's ubiquitous Four Seasons was made for the Cetra label and first appeared on a long-playing record in the United States in 1950. The flowering of the early music movement was a recent development and Harnoncourt was one of its founding fathers and most significant and convincing proponents.Nikolaus Harnoncourt: The Complete Sony Recordings assembles Harnoncourt's complete Sony and RCA affiliated label recordings from 2002 to 2015. It features performances with his own early music group Concentus Musicus Wien, the great Vienna Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the superb but under-appreciated Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks. The collection contains 61 CDs and 3 DVDs. The set features Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on DVD, the DVD documentary Mission Mozart with pianist Lang Lang, rehearsal excerpts, as well as interviews and lectures by Harnoncourt appearing both on CD and DVD. There's also a CD-ROM that contains the collection's sung texts and opera librettos. The set also comes with an imposing 136-page coffee-table book featuring a newly written essay on Nikolaus Harnoncourt: musician, conductor and music researcher, plus all of his own fascinating liner notes and the interviews that came with the original CD releases.The recordings contained in this collection feature one group of performances that are firmly in the historically informed performance camp. Conducting his Concentus Musicus Wien, Harnoncourt took the words "historically informed" quite seriously. He always struck me as the least doctrinaire of all of the early music conductors. If you watch the DVD in which he prepares for recording a pair of Mozart piano concertos with Lang Lang, he suddenly shifts gears and offers some astute observations to the preparing musicians by providing singular historical examples. For instance, he offers evidence of a somewhat larger range of the piano that is utilized in a Mozart performance by pointing out that the famous singing bird that the composer owned was probably NOT a starling but a canary and so Mozart's mimicry of the bird in a concerto probably demanded a wider keyboard range. These judgments reflect Harnoncourt's years of study and experience but are highly personal observations and not mere dogmatic assertions. Harnoncourt's performances were never dry-as-dust academic exercises but often probing and deeply emotional (listen to the Requiems). Unlike some other early music conductors, he used recent discoveries that were made in early music performance practice as guidance for the music's unfolding and not as determining its final destination. This relative independence seemed to provide Harnoncourt with a significant amount of artistic freedom that one can hear in the performances contained in this collection.The recordings originate from late in his career and reflect the joy Harnoncourt discerned in music and its lore. The set contains a wealth of symphonies by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Bruckner, as well as performances of choral works such as the Verdi, Brahms and Mozart Requiems along with Haydn's late oratorios Die Schöpfung (The Creation) and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons). Also included is Mozart's rarely recorded shorter opera Zaide, Haydn's finest opera Orlando Paladino and a rather surprising yet entertaining recording of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Also included are previously authorized but unreleased recordings of J. S. Bach's Cantatas Nos.26 & 36, Beethoven's rarely performed Christus am Ölberge and Dvorák's Stabat Mater. It is an eclectic collection of music and given its variety, a lot of fun to listen to. Since the performances with Concentus Musicus Wien only represent a portion of the collection, the rest of the set's music reflects modern orchestras playing older music conducted by a master of historically informed performance techniques. It means relatively fleet tempos, more transparent textures, and a greater emphasis on individual instrument sonorities rather than presenting the orchestra as a monolith of blended sound. Yet Harnoncourt conducts with expressive freedom rather than strictness of tempo, especially in his beloved Mozart. It was the beauty of the music and its emotional complexity that most interested Harnoncourt, especially in his last years and it is what distinguishes these autumnal performances.The set comes in a fairly large box which is slightly unwieldy but not too heavy or uncomfortable to carry. The box is attractive and seems quite sturdy. One negative observation is that the collection does not duplicate the original SACD releases of some of these recordings i.e. those SACDs that were originally released on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and RCA. All of the discs in the collection are red book standard CDs. It is a missed opportunity to offer Harnoncourt's music in a high-definition, multi-channel format given the premium price of the set. But that is the only significant negative in what is a respectful, musically valuable celebration of the life and career of one of the foremost conductors and musical scholars of the modern era. Whether or not the CDs have been re-mastered for this collection (Sony usually re-masters these box sets using DSD and 24 bit/96 kHz technology), their sound is crisp and deep with a fairly wide soundstage and a pleasing warmth coupled with a striking transparency of instrumental textures. This collection is highly recommended for all of the talent, musical beauty and great learning it contains.Set Contents:DISC 1:Bach: Cantata BWV 36 „Schwingt freudig euch empor“ - Concentus Musicus Wien [previously unreleased]Bach: Cantata BWV 26 „Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig“ - Concentus Musicus Wien [previously unreleased]DISC 2:Bach: Cantata BWV 140 "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" - Concentus Musicus WienBach: Cantata BWV 61 "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland"- Concentus Musicus WienBach: Cantata BWV 29 "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir” - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 3-4:Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 5-6:Mozart: Timotheus oder die Gewalt der Musik KV 591 - Große Kantate nach G.F. Händels "Das Alexander-Fest" HWV 75 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 7-8:Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 9-10: Haydn: Orlando Paladino - Dramma eroicomico, H. 28/11 - Concentus Musicus Wien DISC 11: Haydn: Symphony No. 82 in C Major, Hob. I:82, "L'Ours" - Concentus Musicus Wien Haydn: Symphony No. 83 in G Minor, Hob. I:83, "La Poule" - Concentus Musicus Wien DISC 12: Haydn: Symphony No. 84 in E-Flat Major, Hob. I:84 - Concentus Musicus Wien Haydn: Symphony No. 85 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:85, "La Reine" - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 13:Haydn: Symphony No. 86 in D Major, Hob. I:86 - Concentus Musicus WienHaydn: Symphony No. 87 in A Major, Hob. I:87 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 14-15:Haydn: Die Schöpfung (The Creation), H. 21/2 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 16-17:Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), Hob. XXI:3 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 18:Mozart: Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major, K. 16 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 4 in D Major, K. 19 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 4a in F Major, K. 19a - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, K. 22 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 43 in F Major, K. 76 (K. 42a) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, K. 43 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 19:Mozart: Symphony No. 7a in G Major, K. 45a "Lambach" - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 7 in D Major, K. 45 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 55 in B-Flat Major, K. 45b - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 8 in D Major, K. 48 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 9 in C Major, K. 73 (75a) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 44 in D Major, K. 81 (73I) - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 20:Mozart: Symphony No. 47 in D Major, K. 97 (73m) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 45 in D Major, K. 95 (73n) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 11 in D Major, K. 84 (73q) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 10 in G Major, K. 74 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 42 in F Major, K. 75 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 12 in G Major, K. 110 (75b) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony in D Major: Overture & No. 1 from "Ascanio in Alba", K. 111 & K.120/111a - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 21:Mozart: Symphony No. 46 in C Major, K. 96 (111 b)- Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 13 in F Major, K. 112 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 14 in A Major, K. 114 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 15 in G Major, K. 124 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Menuetto & Trio in C Major, K. 409 (383f) - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 22:Mozart: Symphony No. 16 in C Major, K. 128 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 17 in G Major, K. 129 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 18 in F Major, K. 130 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 19 in E-Flat Major, K. 132 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 23:Mozart: Symphony No. 20 in D Major, K. 133 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 21 in A Major, K. 134 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 50 in D Major, K. 141a (Overture from "Il sogno di Scipione", K. 126 & K. 161/163) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 22 in C Major, K. 162 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 26 in E-Flat Major, K. 184 (161a) - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 24:Mozart: Symphony No. 27 in G Major, K. 199 (161b) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 23 in D Major, K. 181 (162b) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 24 in B-Flat Major, K. 182 (173dA) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, K. 183 "Kleine in g-moll" - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony in D Major (Overture from "La finta giardiniera", K. 196 & K. 127 (207a)) - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 25:Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 1, 4, 4a, 5, 7a, 6 with lectures of Mozart lettersDISC 26:Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 7, 43, 55, 8, 9 with lectures of Mozart lettersDISC 27:A lecture of Mozart lettersDISC 28:Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 47, 1, 15, 20, 50, 22, 26 with lectures of Mozart lettersDISC 29:Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 27, 25, in D Major and Menuetto & Trio with lectures of Mozart lettersDISC 30-31:Zaide, K. 344DISC 32:Mozart: March No. 1 in D Major, K. 335 (K. 320a) - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Serenade in D Major, K. 320, "Posthorn-Serenade" - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony in D Major, K. 385 "Haffner-Sinfonie" - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 33:Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K 503 - Concentus Musicus Wien, Rudolf Buchbinder, pianoMozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K 488 - Concentus Musicus Wien, Rudolf Buchbinder, pianoDISC 34:Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491 – Wiener Philharmoniker, Lang Lang, pianoMozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 – Wiener Philharmoniker, Lang Lang, pianoDISC 35:Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543 - Concentus Musicus WienMozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 36:Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter" - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 37:Mozart: Requiem, K. 626 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 38:Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge, Op. 85 - Concentus Musicus Wien [previously unreleased]DISC 39:Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 - Concentus Musicus WienBeethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 40:Beethoven: Missa solemnis, Op. 123 – Concentus Musicus Wien, Arnold Schoenberg ChorDISC 41-42Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50 – Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen RundfunksDISC 43-44:Verdi : Messa da Requiem – Wiener PhilharmonikerDISC 45-46:Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major – Wiener PhilharmonikerBruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major - RehearsalDISC 47-48:Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, WAB 109 – Wiener PhilharmonikerWie ein Stein vom Mond - Gesprächskonzert: Sinfonie Nr. 9 d-moll WAB 109, Finale (unvollendet) - Dokumentation des Fragments (Hrsg. von John A. Phillips) (Deutsche Version)Like A Stone From The Moon - A Colloquial Concert: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109, Finale (unfinished) - Documentation of the Fragment (English Version)DISC 49-50:Smetana: Má Vlast – Wiener PhilharmonikerDISC 51:Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 – Wiener PhilharmonikerDISC 52-53:Dvorák: Stabat Mater, Op. 58 – Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks [previously unreleased]DISC 54:Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106 – The Chamber Orchestra of EuropeBartók: Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz. 113 – The Chamber Orchestra of EuropeDISC 55-57:Gershwin: Porgy and Bess – The Chamber Orchestra of EuropeDISC 58-59:Walzer Revolution - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 60-61:Neujahrskonzert (New Year’s Concert) 2003 - Wiener PhilharmonikerDISC 62-63: DVD: Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - Concentus Musicus WienDISC 64: DVD: Mission Mozart - Lang Lang & Wiener PhilharmonikerDISC 65: CD-ROM with Libretti

Nietzsche tells us “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”Regarding the artefact in frame – Harnoncourt’s complete recordings on Sony - this aphorism has never been more pertinent. Having heard – and owned - enough of this legacy over the years, allow me to say this: hydraulic issues would be the least of your concerns if you house this behemoth in its entirety. Dorian Gray – and old friend of mine – tells me that nothing is ageing faster than Harnoncourt’s legacy. By virtue of his idiosyncrasies and espousal of the Period Practice Taliban, so much of this collection is unlistenable from want of grace, charm and line. His endless repeats in the Paris Symphonies are “an invitation to go mad or commit a terrible crime.” NH’s Porgi and Bess? Say it ain’t so! When his pinch-gut survey of Mozart’s early Symphonies is trumped by his forays with Lang Lang – such as they are - we have left the Inner Station and Colonel Kurtz far behind us: the rest is jungle. Western Civilisation is besieged enough as it is – would it not have been wiser ro leave NH’s Paradise & the Peri and Christ on the Mount of Olives in the vault? NH’s remake of the Posthorn Serenade cannot hold a candle to his earlier performance with the Staatskapelle Dresden. What of his Bruckner 5 & 9 I hear you ask? They’re the musical equivalent of a bowl of muesli. The last items in his discography – Beethoven 4 & 5 and the Missa Solemnis – are more ordinary than a packet of chicken soup – just add hot water. How I ever managed to listen to them is beyond me. The same could be said of these performances of the Creation and the Seasons. They reverse Handel’s maxim that music should make one better, not surly and impotent.Harnoncourt’s best work (Haydn 31, 59 & 73 and surveys of the London Symphonies and Mozart’s contributions to that genre) are on Teldec / Warner and therefore not here.

Can someone please send me the previously unreleased Bach, Beethoven, and Dvorak? I have wanted that Stabat Mater for years, sure could use a Christ Mountain Olives with these forces, and am really intrigued by the new Cantatas. I've bought all of the other albums individually over the years, my copies are very well loved, but I want the bonuses!

As a massive box of more than 60 reissued CD's I expected this to be a cheap product with the CDs in identical cardboard sleeves and no information about the music. Instead it is a huge luxury box with a large hard-back book and the discs presented in copies of their original packaging. It will keep me occupied during lockdown.

Good value, though some of the discs have speech in German. The box is very unwieldy, so I took the CDs out and placed them on a shelf, putting the box away in the attic. A great conductor.

Due possibili inizi.Il primo. In principio era la sensazione che la musica barocca dovesse essere in realtà molto diversa da quella che si ascoltava, negli anni Cinquanta, a Vienna e altrove. Le interpretazioni vigenti erano eleganti, apollinee, oggettive, ma senza passione. Com'era possibile che l'estetica barocca, così attenta a esplorare e rappresentare le umane passioni - Bernini docet -, non avesse prodotto, a livello musicale, altro che un linguaggio freddo, compassato, regolare, contrassegnato dal ritmo di una macchina per cucire? Di qui il desiderio di studiare i trattati del tempo, di ricostruire la prassi esecutiva, di recuperare gli strumenti originali. Ecco riemergere un discorso musicale ricco di sfumature, in cui la grazia apollinea finisce di essere il criterio unico, mentre si fanno strada le durezze, i contrasti, le asperità, le irregolarità. Da una musica come Grazia a una musica come Linguaggio dello Spirito.Il secondo. In principio era la constatazione che il materialismo dilaga. L'uomo occidentale non chiede più di mettersi in cammino, tramite e con la musica, verso le scaturigini dell'anima o nei suoi abissi. Si ritrae di fronte a una sfida così difficile. L'occidente è avviato al tramonto, come Sprengler aveva preannunciato. Preso nei ritmi vorticosi della vita moderna, l'uomo cerca nella musica un mezzo per rilassarsi, uno strumento di evasione dal grigiore. Così la musica si impregna di delicatezza, sospensione, grazia: limita il suo campo di azione, la sua bellezza di riduce alla grazia apollinea, la sua funzione a uno scopo meramente edonistico. Occorre una svolta forte per recuperare la dimensione dello Spirito. Occorre intraprendere strade non scontate, sapendo che possono rivelarsi causa di perplessità o disorientamento. E bisogna percorrerle sino in fondo, senza lasciarsi intimidire dalla critiche. La prassi esecutiva barocca, gli strumenti originali offrono un'opportunità. Non si tratta di ricostruire il modo in cui Bach suonava: siffatta operazione, oltre che impossibile, sarebbe priva di senso. Si tratta invece di proporre il Bach del XX secolo, con gli strumenti originali. Nell'asperità e nella irregolarità di questi strumenti c'è lo stimolo a cercare percorsi interpretativi nuovi, capaci di dischiudere orizzonti inediti, di produrre shock nell'ascoltatore, di renderlo disponibile all'inaudito.Due inizi, forse entrambi veri. Complementari nella loro diversità. Il percorso di Harnoncourt ha conosciuto tappe differenti. Harnoncourt è stato un genio faustiano, in perenne contraddizione, anche rispetto a se stesso. Infatti ha sorpreso sempre. Ma, in fondo, è rimasto fedele alle intuizioni fondamentali, filosofiche ed estetiche, che, sin dall'inizio, hanno guidato il suo cammino. Leggo con piacere le parole, piene di ammirazione, di altri recensori. Ma tengo a precisare che Harnoncourt non è stato mai un interprete irrigidito nel culto della partitura, o della ricerca filologica, o dello storicismo accademico. La sua concezione del tempo e il fraseggio adottato non sono mai stati caratterizzati da rigidità. Tutt'altro. L'immagine di un Harnoncourt serioso, troppo immedesimato nel suo mestiere di filologo per dare spazio all'estro dell'artista, è solo un luogo comune, derivato da una conoscenza superficiale sia della sua produzione saggisticia che delle sue interpretazioni affidate al disco: è signficativo che, quando Harnoncourt, in una conferenza, criticò la pretesa di pervenire a una lettura autentica, l'autrice di un articolo pubblicato su un quotidiano italiano commentò: "Affermazione che, da parte di Harnoncourt, suona paradossale". E invece è il commento della giornalista, proferito in tale contesto, suona come paradossale, come paradossale dimostrazione di ignoranza. Harnoncourt ha sempre sostenuto, anche nei suoi primi saggi, che nessuna interpretazione può essere autentica. Ogni interpretazione è un dialogo in cui la personalità dell'interprete assume un ruolo rilevante, non può essere considerata alla stregua di un'operazione meramente filologica.Harnoncourt è stato sempre, sin dall'inizio, un profeta della musica intesa come discorso umano, che richiede un tempo non oggettivo, bensì flessibile, fatto di respiri, funzionale alla rappresentazione di quadri diversi, talvolta contrastanti. Tale idea sembra essersi radicalizzata in queste esecuzioni registrate dalla Sony, una vera summa dell'ultimo Harnoncourt: difficile sentire una quinta di Beethoven così libera nei tempi o un incipit della 41 di Mozart così metafisico e visionario o una Missa solemnis (vero disco testamento del Maestro) così estatica e contemplativa. Ma è anche vero che l'ultima stagione è stata quella in cui certe intuizioni originarie che lo portavano nella direzione della ricerca filologica sono divenute più consequenziali ed estreme: di qui la scelta di eseguire con gli strumenti originali del Concentus Musicus anche l'ultimo Mozart o alcuni capolavori di Beethoven e Strauss.Per il resto è il box è meraviglioso: uno splendido libro e un insieme di registrazioni memorabili (rimando a elenchi disponibili online e a recensioni del sottoscritto relative a dischi compresi nella raccolta: mi limito a precisare che di Dvorak è qui presentato lo Stabat Mater e non il Requiem, come si dice erroneamente in altra recensione), con un imperdibile documentario in DVD (Harnoncourt che prova Mozart con Lang Lang e i Wiener Philarmoniker) e una mirabile esecuzione, sempre in DVD, del Flauto Magico. Il box potrà essere un compagno di viaggio nell'esplorazione di uno stile inimitabile, fatto di fortissimi intensi, talora persino brutali, e di piano eloquenti, dolcissimi, intrisi di umanità straordinaria - lo stile di un gigante della musica di cui sentiremo grande mancanza.

It's really a very nice set and unbeatable for the price. I had most of the cd's already but went for the unreleased material, which makes it expensive since these are only two titles. Sony says 3 but the Dvorak Stabat Mater had already been released as a sacd a number of years back (an outright lie to lure the customer) which narrows it down to the Bach cantatas and Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge. Wonderful works but expensive at 40 euro's each (if one already has all the rest, that is).The coffeetable book is nice but not much more than a glossary of the original textbooklets that came with the cd's. Nice, but certainly not a must-have. I had hoped it would come with interviews and pictures. The sleeves of the cd's are a bit small which makes it difficult to get them out.Why 5 stars? Price vs quantity and the absolute stunning musical performance.

I write this one weekend after Sir Neville Mariner passed away, which makes me think back to the great conductors of early and baroque music that shaped my musical education as a teenager, and there are two names that stand out: Sir Neville (of Academy of St Martin in the Fields fame) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I well remember my first hearing of Harnoncourt's radical (for the time) interpretation of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and how it broke the mould of how baroque pieces should be played and presented. Over the following decade, anything released by Harnoncourt (often on Teldec back then) was an automatic purchase, including the Bach Cantata series, which I treasure to this day in their brown boxes, nicely lined up on my LP shelves.This box of Harnoncourt's complete recordings for Sony was an automatic pre-order for me, and it's been sitting in my music room for a week now, as I've gone over the contents several times. The box itself is one of the larger boxes, much the same as the Bernstein boxes from the same publisher: the box is about the size of an LP, divided into four sections inside with a stack of CDs in each section. I'm not a huge fan of this type of box presentation, as finding any particular CD is a process of digging through the piles, but so be it (I much prefer the traditional box presentation with the CDs lined up, but that wouldn't leave room for the book). Speaking of book, there's a hardcover tribute to Harnoncourt, well written and illustrated, which is well worth acquiring.What about the music? Well, this is, as the name of the box implies, everything Harnoncourt recorded for Sony. There's 65 discs in the box (some are DVDs, which I'll come to in a moment). There's a previously unreleased CD of Bach's Canatas 26 and 36, as well as some other Bach (this isn't the complete Canata series, which was on Teldec). There's discs of Beethoven, Handel, Haydn and Mozart (lots of Mozart!), along with other big-name composers, as well as some Smetana, Bartok, and Gershwin. All the pieces presented are pretty much standard repertoire, with no real surprises on any CD, except for the odd less-performed work (such as Mozart's Zaide and Haydn's Orlando. There's also three DVDs, one a documentary about the Mission Mozart program, a recording of Die Zauberflote, and a set of interviews with Harnoncourt. The DVDs are a nice addition, and I hope more box sets start including DVDs as a bonus feature. Finally, there's a CD with all the texts from the works on the other discs, which is nice.The recording quality throughout is superb, as you would expect. Harnoncourt's interpretations of most of these works will not be too big a surprise, as there's not quite the room to shake up the performances the way he did early on with Four Seasons, but all of these recordings are excellent performances. This isn't a cheap box set by any means, but as a tribute to Harnoncourt, it's a respectful nod at a great conductor. I loved the book, and the music stands by itself. Well worth adding to your collection.