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In Memoriam 2016

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In Memoriam 2016

December 19, 2016 • NPR Music remembers musicians — singers, songwriters, instrumentalists — and other visionaries we lost in 2016. Explore and celebrate their musical legacies.

In Memoriam 2016

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Remembering Nikolaus Harnoncourt

The late conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, rehearsing in Salzburg, Austria in 2012. Barbara Gindl/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

Remembering Nikolaus Harnoncourt

March 7, 2016 • The incisive conductor and early-music expert died Saturday at age 86. His recordings of such composers as Bach and Mozart made him a legend.

Talk Like An Opera Geek: Musical Signposts

Know your rallentando from your accelerando? Opera singers must follow the composer's musical road signs. iStock hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

Talk Like An Opera Geek: Musical Signposts

February 1, 2012 • Opera singers must obey the musical traffic signals, knowing an accelerando from a rallentando.

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Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro'

July 13, 2007 • The brilliant soprano Anna Netrebko stars in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, an opera with a slapstick surface that hides deeply emotional roots. The production is from the Salzburg Festival.

Music Interviews

Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Schubert's Religion

May 11, 2006 • Scholars may argue over the essence of Franz Schubert's religious beliefs, but for conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, there's no doubting the deep spirituality found in the composer's Mass No. 5.

Harnoncourt on Schubert

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Music Interviews

Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Schubert's Miracle Year

May 10, 2006 • The genius of Franz Schubert is so great that conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt feels he was "thrown down from the moon." Harnoncourt discusses and conducts Schubert's Second Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Hear Nikolaus Harnoncourt discuss Schubert with 'Performance Today's' Fred Child

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Music Interviews

Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Mozart Changed My Life

May 9, 2006 • In the 1950s, Nikolaus Harnoncourt was a cellist in the Vienna Symphony, tired of playing Mozart in a style he could not stomach. He quit the orchestra and started one of his own.

Hear Nikolaus Harnoncourt discuss Mozart with 'Performance Today's' Fred Child

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