John Eliot Gardiner
Conductor John Eliot Gardiner is a leading figure in the historical performance movement, having founded the Monteverdi Choir for performances of Baroque music and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, devoted to music of the 19th century. He is especially noted for performances and recordings of Bach's choral music, and his label, Soli Deo Gloria ("To the Glory of God Only"), takes its name from the small S.D.G. signature Bach affixed to many of his works.
Gardiner was born on April 20, 1943, in the village of Fontmell Magna in England's Dorset County. It is worth notice that for the first part of his musical education, he was largely self-taught: he sang in a village church choir and played the violin. At 15, he took up conducting, and while he was studying history, Arabic, and medieval Spanish at Cambridge, he also began conducting choirs there. He led choirs from Oxford and Cambridge on a Middle Eastern tour while still an undergraduate, and in 1964, he conducted a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, a work little known at the time. Out of this performance grew the Monteverdi Choir, his primary performing ensemble. Gardiner studied musicology and conducting with Thurston Dart and Nadia Boulanger in the mid-'60s, which was his only period of formal musical study. In 1968, he founded a Monteverdi Orchestra to go with the choir; in the '70s, the group began to use Baroque instruments and was renamed the English Baroque Soloists. With this group and the Monteverdi Choir, Gardiner has made recordings numbering in the hundreds. Mostly during the first part of his career, he also worked with conventional symphony orchestras. His U.S. debut came in 1979 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and in the '80s and early '90s, he was music director of the CBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Opera de Lyon Orchestra, and the North German Radio Orchestra (now the NDR Elbphilharmonie). In 1990, as understanding of the historical instruments used in the music of Beethoven and subsequent composers was just developing, he founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, leading it on tour in 1993 with a then recently rediscovered Messe solennelle of Berlioz.
One of Gardiner's most celebrated accomplishments was his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. The group toured for 52 weeks, performing all of Bach's cantatas at their appropriate times in the liturgical year, often in churches with relevance in Bach's own career. The performances were recorded and issued in lavish packaging on Soli Deo Gloria, with essays by Gardiner delving into the meaning of each work. These essays led Gardiner to publish a book, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (2013). Gardiner has also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, and other labels. His Schumann symphony recordings with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique are credited with introducing a trend toward smaller forces in those works. Another major tour came in Spain in 2004, as Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir retraced the medieval Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route and sang medieval Spanish repertory. Gardiner has also appeared as a guest conductor with major symphony orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. His recording career has not slackened in the least in his senior citizen years, as he has often released a half-dozen recordings per year or more. In 2019, he and the Monteverdi Choir released Love is come again, featuring music from the Springhead Easter Play, a mime event staged annually at Gardiner's family home and originally directed by his mother. He was not slowed much in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic, for he already had material in the hopper, including a modern-instrument recording of a pair of Schumann symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra. He returned in 2022 with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a new recording for the Deutsche Grammophon label of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245. Gardiner's many awards include designation as Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France in 2011.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Verdi: Falstaff (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Dynamic am 15.07.2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Easter Oratorio - Actus tragicus
Geistliche Oratorien - Erschienen bei SDG am 03.03.2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chabrier: España; Suite pastorale
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 03.06.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Dixit Dominus
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.09.2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carissimi: Jephte, Jonas & Judicium extremum
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 04.03.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Requiem - Kyrie in D minor
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn : The Complete Masses - Stabat Mater
John Eliot Gardiner, George Guest, Simon Preston
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.1, Schicksalslied, Begrabnisgesang
Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Symphonieorchester - Erschienen bei SDG am 01.09.2008
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Leclair: Scylla et Glaucus, Op. 11
Donna Brown, Howard Crook, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Oper - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.01.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn : Symphonies 4 "Italian" & 5 "Reformation"
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weber: Oberon
Hillevi Martinpelto, Steve Davislim, Jonas Kaufmann, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 04.07.2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Cantates (Volume 18) (John Eliot Gardiner - The Monteverdi Choir)
Geistliche Kantaten - Erschienen bei SDG am 01.10.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Suite d'orchestre de Dardanus
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 09.12.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 "Scottish", The Hebrides Overture - Schumann: Piano Concerto (Digital standard)
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner, Maria João Pires
Klassik - Erschienen bei LSO Live am 13.10.2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré: Requiem / Debussy: Trois chansons de Charles d'Orléans / Saint-Saëns: Calme des nuits
Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scarlatti: Stabat Mater - Clément: O Maria, vernans rosa - Gesualdo: Ave dulcissima Maria - Cavalli: Salve Regina
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 10.03.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Messe Solennelle
John Eliot Gardiner, Donna Brown, Jean-Luc Viala, Gilles Cachemaille, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 14.02.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Eliot Gardiner: The Best Of Bach
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca (UMO) am 01.01.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Le Comte Ory
John Eliot Gardiner, Sumi Jo, Diana Montague, John Aler, Choeur De l'Opéra National De Lyon, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Idomeneo
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1991
Qobuz’ Schallplattensammlung16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo