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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Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances / Janácek: Taras Bulba
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri; Requiem für Mignon; Nachtlied
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Oratorios
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Santiago a cappella
Classical - Released by SDG on 1 Sep 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven / Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos
Viktoria Mullova, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: 6 Great Masses
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BWV 6 & St. Matthew Passion Pt. 2 - John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 7 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Roméo & Juliette
Catherine Robbin, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Gilles Cachemaille, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Harold en Italie; Tristia
Gérard Caussé, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 4 "Italian"
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Symphonies - Released by LSO Live on 9 Sep 2016
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No. 5, D. 485 - Brahms: Serenade No. 2, Op. 16 (Live)
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by SDG on 31 Aug 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
50 Baroque Masterpieces
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Händel: Wassermusik
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on 7 Jul 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell Edition Volume 3 : Odes, Anthems & Ceremonial Music
Classical - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 Apr 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Cantatas for the 9th Sunday after Trinity
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz : L'enfance du Christ
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 Oct 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 "Reformation", Overture Ruy Blas, Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Symphonies - Released by LSO Live on 4 May 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No.7 op.92 & No.8 op.93
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Voices in the Night - Choral Works
Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 7 Oct 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel, Bach & Scarlatti: Live at Milton Court
Monteverdi Choir, Esther Brazil, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by SDG on 2 Dec 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo