What is Gustav Leonhardt?
[[Image:Gustav Leonhardt.jpg|thumb|300px|Gustav Leonhardt playing a harpsichord at the MAfestival in [[Bruges]]]] '''Gustav Leonhardt''' (born 's-Graveland, [[Netherlands]], 30 May 1928, died [[Amsterdam]], 16 January 2012) was a famous [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[harpsichord]]ist, [[pipe organ|organist]] and [[Conductor (music)|conductor]] who became well known for playing music from historical periods on [[period instruments]]. At the beginning of his career the harpsichord was not yet a popular instrument and music from the [[Renaissance]] and [[Baroque music|Baroque]] periods was usually played in the same way as music from later centuries. Gustav Leonhardt made his audiences aware of what music by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] would have sounded like in Bach's day. ==Life== Gustav Leonhardt was born into a Dutch, Protestant family who lived in the countryside. His [[Protestantism]] was an important part of his life. His father was a wealthy business man. His parents were both very keen [[amateur]] musicians. When Gustav was ten they bought a harpsichord. When [[World War II]] broke out life was hard in the country and Leonhardt often had to hide under the [[floor]]boards so that he was not sent away to slave labour. When he was not hiding he spent a lot of time practising the harpsichord. Gustav Leonhardt studied organ and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum in [[Basel]]. At that time this was the only place in Europe where it was possible to study how to play early music. He went to [[Vienna]] to study conducting because his parents thought that being a conductor was a good way to earn a lot of money. However, Gustav was never very keen on conducting and he spent all his time there in the library studying music scores and copying music out. Most of this music had never been published and had not been performed since the time it was composed. In 1952 he became professor of harpischord at the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik. He met [[Nikolaus Harnoncourt]] who had similar interests to his. He soon became professor o