Gustav Leonhardt is probably the most famous harpsichordist in the world today. He has been a leader of the early music movement for more than 50 years, and is particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He played the composer in the 1968 film The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach and was one of the directors of the pioneering complete recording of Bach’s cantatas, produced by Teldec in the 1970s and 80s. He is also renowned as a teacher. He has been Professor of Harpsichord at the Amsterdam Conservatory since 1954, and many of his former pupils are now prominent in the early music field, including Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood, Bob van Asperen, Colin Tilney, Alan Curtis and Davitt Moroney.

Gustav Leonhardt has been interested in the great repertory of English keyboard music for many years, and his recital includes music by William Byrd, John Bull, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins, Henry Purcell and William Croft. He plays a copy by Malcolm Rose of the earliest surviving English harpsichord, made by Lodewijk Theeus in 1579.