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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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41
John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV 1127 & Other Cantata Selections (Live)
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei SDG am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell: The Fairy Queen
Eiddwen Harrhy, Timothy Penrose, Wynford Evans, Stephen Varcoe, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Whitsun Cantatas BWV 172, 59, 74 & 34
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: St. John Passion, BWV 245
English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 04.03.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Eliot Gardiner Conducts Handel
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 03.02.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Charlotte Margiono, Catherine Robbin, William Kendall, Alastair Miles, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
Charlotte Margiono, Rod Gilfry, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell Edition Volume 4 : Instrumental Music
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.09.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Complete Symphonies
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 32, 35 & 36
John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz, Bizet, Massenet, Messager
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 20.10.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Cantatas for the 11th Sunday after Trinity
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Cantatas
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 72; 73; 111; 156
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Baroque and More
Karl Ristenpart, August Wenzinger, John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, Reinhard Goebel, Marc Minkowski
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell: Hail! Bright Cecilia, Z. 328 "Ode to Saint Cecilia"
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.01.1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orphée et Euridice
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 02.10.2001
Qobuz’ Schallplattensammlung16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Great Choruses
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archiv Produktion am 01.01.1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Così fan tutte
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo