The abundant legacy of Gustav Leonhardt’s recordings for Telefunken’s Das Alte Werk series invites us to follow his trajectory as a performer from the early 1960’s onwards, a time when the new codes of early music had yet to be invented, when their success depended above all on the strength of conviction of the performer. Leonhardt’s was strengthened by dialogue: with a range of partners whose variety defies all preconceived ideas, with ancient instruments or modern copies of all types, with repertoires as diverse as Byrd, Purcell, Rameau, Johann Sebastian but also Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Not forgetting the 1970 Monteverdi LP, which has never been reissued since. The image of a pope of early music isolated in his tower and frozen in a school style does not last long after listening to this historical sum, extended here by the later series of recordings under the Virgin Veritas flag.

16 January 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of Gustav Leonhardt’s passing.

Born in the Netherland in 1928 Gustav Leonhardt studied organ and harpsichord from 1947 to 1950 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and has had then an extremely dense and rich career:
 
- 1950 debut as a harpsichordist in Vienna and studied musicology at the Academy of Music 1952 professor at the Academy of Music of Vienna
- 1953 recordings of Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue
- 1954 met violinist Marie Amsler who became his wife, became professor at Amsterdam conservatoire
- 1955 titular organist in New Church in Amsterdam, founded Leonhardt-Consort
- From 1965 member of the jury of the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges
- 1969 obtained a chair at Harvard University.
- 1970-71 founded La Petite Bande conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken
- 1971-1990 complete Bach cantatas project with Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Teldec

As an organist, harpsichordist and conductor, Gustav Leonhardt has recorded extensively, his discography includes more than 200 albums focusing on the baroque era.

As a professor and academic researcher Leonhardt is considered an intellectual and artistic authority on early music with a strong influence on later generations of musicians. Among his pupils are a lot of world-class artists: Bob van Asperen, Alan Curtis, Pierre Hantaï, Philipe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Davitt Moroney, Christophe Rousset, Andreas Staier, Skip Sempé…

The present box consists on the previous Gustav Leonhardt Edition – 21 CDs released in 2008 on 0825646961443, not available for years – substantially enhanced with 14 CDs of repertoire from Teldec and Virgin catalogues, including a significant CD premiere on CD 26: Monteverdi - Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and madrigals.