Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1 in C Major with Lang Lang and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 2010. Note the performers' nineteenth-century violins.
Through conversations with early-music performers, Nicholas Kenyon summarizes the the early-music movement and the debate as to whether early music should be performed with contemporary instruments or modern instruments.
Portable organ (portative organ) played by a monstrous creature in a medieval manuscript miniature (British Library Royal 15 D III, f. 506, winged grotesque).
). The man is playing the portable organ (his right hand is pressing down the keys); the…
Portable organ (portative organ) and harp in a medieval manuscript miniature (British Library MS. Harley 334, f. 25v). The man is playing the portable organ (his right hand is pressing down the keys); the harp lies on the ground beside him.
A framed miniature of John, seated with an open book and the thunders above him; angels with scrolls to his right and left speak to him and in the centre, a tall angel stands with one foot in the water and a rainbow over his head, holding an open…
A framed miniature from the Commentary: three men with swords kill three clerics and their souls rise up as birds; on the right a king watches, smiling and holding a sword. On the left in a spired building Christ is a quatrefoil looks down on an…
A framed miniature of an angel with a trumpet and four smaller angels standing in water (the Euphrates); an angel above emerges from a cloud, holding a scroll and Christ is in a mandorla blessing a chalice.
A framed miniature of two angels, one emptying fire from a censer on an altar with the thunders above and the other angel blowing a trumpet, with fire falling to earth from above.
A framed miniature with John outside the frame and a group of angels receiving a trumpet from another angel on the left and an angel holding a gold incense bearer on the right. In the middle is Christ enthroned in a mandorla.
A framed miniature from the Commentary on Revelations 6:5-6: men committing violent crimes, while a king and counsellor sit in judgement (right). Christ in a mandorla with a balance (above), surrounded by the four beasts and Peter, Paul and John on…
A framed miniature from the Commentary on Revelations 6:1-2: the opening of the first seal, with John on the left and an angel with the seal, pointing to the rider on a white horse, who is holding a bow and arrow.
"Historiated initial 'B'(eatus) with David harping, miniature of the Virgin and Child in the lower margin, with a monkey" (British Library Illuminated Manuscripts Catalogue)
Harley 3954 f. 46 depicts the lavish palace of the Great Khan, described--among others--by Franciscan travellers to the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, and gleefully described and ornamented by the Mandeville-narrator (Campbell 124-127).