Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s father was an aristocrat of French ancestry, with liberal Catholic beliefs. Shortly after Nikolaus’s birth in Berlin, the family, whose full name was de la Fontaine und d’Harnoncourt- Unverzagt, returned to Graz from Berlin to live in an inherited mansion. The young boy grew up under the Nazi regime and has commented in interview that ‘This was a time that left the greatest imprint on my life.’ When he was ten years of age he began to play the cello, having decided three years earlier to be a musician after hearing a radio performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. In 1939 he was also obliged to join the junior Hitler Youth; as he recalled, ‘If you did not go twice a week, they picked you up and shaved your head.’ As the Nazi regi...