Gustav Maria Leonhardt was one of the best-known leaders of the Early Music movement. A harpsichordist and organist and later a conductor, he was credited with being one of the most important figures in establishing the Netherlands as one of the main centers of period music performances.
He had a classical education, then entered the Schola Cantorum in Basle. There he studied organ and harpsichord with Eduard Müller. In 1950 he made his debut in Vienna with a harpsichord performance of J.S. Bach's cerebral masterwork, The Art of the Fugue. He studied musicology in Vienna for ...