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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Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245
English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 4 Mar 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach : Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by SDG on 6 Nov 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Overtures, A Midsummer Night's Dream
John Eliot Gardiner, London Symphony Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by LSO Live on 21 Sep 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Messiah
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1983
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Overtures, A Midsummer Night's Dream
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Symphonic Music - Released by LSO Live on 21 Sep 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann : Symphonies 2 & 4 - Genoveva (Overture)
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by LSO Live on 20 Sep 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Magnificat - Missa in F Major
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by SDG on 13 Oct 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann : Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by LSO Live on 7 Feb 2020
24-Bit 96.0 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
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach : St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by SDG on 3 Mar 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Motets
Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by SDG on 30 Apr 2012
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell: Music for Queen Mary, Come ye Sons of Art
Classical - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Cantatas BWV 2, 10, 76, 21, 135 (Vol. 2)
Classical - Released by SDG on 1 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: St John Passion
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by SDG on 1 Mar 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Brandenburg Concertos
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Concertos - Released by SDG on 1 Oct 2009
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream
London Symphony Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir
Classical - Released by LSO Live on 3 Feb 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ludwig van Beethoven : Symphonies n° 5 & n° 7
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Symphonic Music - Released by SDG on 1 Oct 2012
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Les Boréades
Jennifer Smith, Philip Langridge, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 16 Dec 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Dixit Dominus
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Sep 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Mass In B Minor BWV 232 (Messe en si mineur)
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 9 Dec 1985
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ludwig van Beethoven : Missa Solemnis
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by SDG on 11 Nov 2013
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo