Gustav Leonhardt

The keyboardist, conductor and scholar John Butt said, "...there's absolutely no doubting the enormous influence [Leonhardt] held over multiple generations of music making in the Baroque field"; in this discussion, Butt spoke of how much he learned from Leonhardt when preparing a chorus for him in the early 1990s. More generally, Leonhardt significantly influenced the technique and style of many harpsichordists through his teaching, editions, and recordings; his students and collaborators included harpsichordists and keyboard players such as Robert Hill, Bob van Asperen, John Butt, Lucy Carolan, Lisa Crawford, Alan Curtis, Menno van Delft, Richard Egarr, John Fesperman, John Gibbons, Pierre Hantaï, Frederick Renz, Elaine Thornburgh, Ketil Haugsand, Siebe Henstra, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Karyl Louwenaar, Charlotte Mattax, Davitt Moroney, Jacques Ogg, Martin Pearlman (music director of Boston Baroque), Edward Parmentier, Christophe Rousset, Louise Spizizen, Andreas Staier, Skip Sempé, Peter Waldner, Francesco Cera, Domenico Morgante, Jeannette Sorrell (music director of Apollo's Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra), Colin Tilney, Glen Wilson, and Chris Mary Francine Whittle. Butt argues that Leonhardt's influence is not necessarily a simple, direct matter, but that some of his students consciously or unconsciously tried to play differently than he did. In comparing recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations, Butt asserts that a "classic case" of the anxiety of influence is at work in the Goldberg recording by Ton Koopman, in which "what is immediately evident is the incessant ornamentation added to virtually every measure, often regardless of whether there is already obvious ornamentation in the notation.... my immediate reaction is often that this performance's principal message is 'Not Leonhardt'." Similarly, he says that "Bob van Asperen takes [Leonhardt's] rhythmic subtlety to a new extreme and perhaps presents the most rhythmically nuanced account of the work [The Goldberg Variations], one that will be ideal to some and mannered to others." By contrast, Butt argues, the younger Christophe Rousset plays the Goldberg Variations in a "meat-and-potatoes" manner with "a steady rhythm, even articulation, and a matter-of-fact presentation with little extra ornamentation," demonstrating that "certainly Rousset does not seem to count among the 'radical reactivists' [to Leonhardt] such as Koopman and van Asperen." Leonhardt served as a member of the jury for the triennial International Harpsichord Concours of the Musica Antiqua Bruges. He was the only jury member who had participated in all sixteen juries from 1965 to 2010. Among the awards given to him were the Medal of Honour for the Arts and Sciences from the Netherlands, presented to him by Queen Beatrix in 2009, and the 1980 Erasmus Prize, which he shared with Nicolaus Harnoncourt; it honored their recording of the complete Bach cantatas. (Leonhardt donated the money he received from the Erasmus Prize to Oudezijds 100, an ecumenical Christian charity operating "in the red-light district [of] Amsterdam" that "addresses the issues of drug-addicts, prostitutes, refugees, and the homeless."). Leonhardt was doctor honoris causa of the universities of Dallas, Amsterdam, Harvard, Metz and Padua. In 2007, he was made Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and in 2008, Commander of the Order of the Crown in Belgium. Leonhardt gave his last public performance on 12 December 2011 at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. Thereafter, he announced his retirement due to illness and cancelled all of his 2012 engagements. He died of cancer in Amsterdam on Monday, 16 January 2012, aged 83. Two asteroids were named after him: 9903 Leonhardt and 12637 Gustavleonhardt.

Leonhardt lived in a canal house on the Herengracht dating from about 1617, the Huis Bartolotti, and was a collector of decorative arts, paintings, and engravings. In 2014, his collection was auctioned by Sotheby's. His instruments were sold to a few former students, including Skip Sempé, Siebe Henstra and Pierre Hantaï.