SDG

Opera or oratorio? The question has remained unanswered since the disastrous creation of Semele in Covent Garden in 1744. Attacked by both opera critics and devotees, both parties accusing him of turning theatres into temples by playing his oratorios, Handel was no longer popular in the British capital. In doing so, he reconnected with Greek mythology through Ovid and his librettists in a work intended to satisfy both sides.Semele contains several large passages, including a splendid quartet in the first act, which was extremely rare at the time. But it was a complete failure and the new work was on display only for four short evenings. John Eliot Gardiner first recorded Semele at the beginning of the 80s for Erato Records, to varying degrees of success. He revisited the work in 2019 for a series of concerts given in Paris, Barcelona, Milan (La Scala), Rome and London, where the new version was recorded on 2nd May 2019.Gardiner sets the record straight in a way with this recording that does full justice to this hybrid work thanks to excellent soloists, starting with soprano Louise Alder in the title role. His great sensitivity, the rich palette of vocal colours and the touching expressiveness are all incredibly admirable. The protagonists surrounding him, mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot, tenor Hugo Hymas, countertenor Carlo Vistoli, bass Gianluca Buratto and a few soloists from the choir, complete a coherent and flawless cast. As an untiring discoverer of new voices, Sir John Eliot Gardiner gives a beautiful impetus to this work. The Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists are as sparkling as ever. © François Hudry/Qobuz

There is no shortage of good Bach violin concerto recordings, nor even of those played by historical-performance groups, yet this one has several distinct attractions. First, is simply the presence of violinist Kati Debretzeni, long a violin section leader of Gardiner's English Baroque Soloists but rarely heard as a soloist in her own right. She's one of the few historical-performance specialists to have emerged from Eastern Europe, and she deserves wider exposure. Second, are her two arrangements of harpsichord concertos (assisted in the case of the Violin Concerto in D minor, after the Harpsichord Concerto, BWV 1052, by Wilfried Fischer), competently done and really adding viable violin concertos to the Bach repertory. Third, the ensemble size of about a dozen is ideal. Lastly, is the overall shaping of the pieces, and here Gardiner deserves a good deal of credit: everyone would have been fine if he had stayed in his usual comfortable groove, but here he responds nicely to a younger player with something to say. Debretzeni is terrific, standing up to Gardiner's warm sound with sharp, penetrating lines and then mellowing in the slow movements into a real Italianate lyricism. Although the St. Jude's Hampstead church sound is uninspiring, this is a very fine group of Bach violin concertos. © TiVo

John Eliot Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir was well into its sixth decade when this album appeared in 2019, and the group's continuing relevance and vigor is certainly the result in part of its willingness to undertake new kinds of projects. Subtitled Music for the Springhead Easter Play, Love Is Come Again is a personal album for director John Eliot Gardiner, especially striking in that the Monteverdi Choir's usual sound, although warm, might be called abstract. The Springhead Easter Play is not a traditional village ritual but a mime event staged at Gardiner's family home, Springhead, and originally directed by the conductor's mother. The predecessor to this release was 1998's Once As I Remember, a collection of diverse Christmas pieces united principally by the fact that the Gardiner family found each work relevant to some aspect of the Christmas celebration. For Love Is Come Again the focus shifts to Easter, but the overall feel is similar, with the Passion story recounted though pieces of various periods, from chant and folk music to contemporary works. Sample the Abendlied from the Drei Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 69, of Josef Rheinberger, which shows the choir's ability to connect with music far outside its usual field. A must for Gardiner fans, this is an unusual Easter album for any choral music listener. © TiVo

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria by Monteverdi poses a lot of problems for modern performers. There exists no definitive manuscript – although one may doubt how much people bothered back then with "definitive" versions of works which were re-written from one performance to the other, depending on the singers and instrumentalists that were on hand, the tastes of this or that star, the diktat of the Church – and the only copy dating from the composer's time, discovered in Vienna in 1881, is incomplete. When we try and compare this manuscript with different copies of the libretto which are still around today, the difficulties only increase. For this recording by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, recorded live at concerts in September 2017, the decision was taken to fill in everything that could be filled in with a few passages borrowed from earlier works by Monteverdi. The Return of Ulysses dates from 1640, when Monteverdi was 74 years old, so there was a lot to choose from for these fillers. This version is almost certainly the closest approximation we have to the original yet, the singers have worked hard to give the most accurate reproduction possible of the vocal inflections demanded by the various formats employed by Monteverdi. These inflections are often very declamatory and sometimes sung to the fullest. The recitations and the melodies, the ensembles and the choirs: everything is treated with the utmost care and the effort put into contrast and clarity only enhances the quality of this recording. A magnificent rendition. © SM/Qobuz

Recorded in concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in November 2016, this new album from the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner celebrates the bicentenary of Schubert's Fifth Symphony – written in September and October 1816! In it, the young composer follows in the footsteps of Mozart and Haydn, and at the same time develops his own personal language: after all, it was his fifth great symphonic work. As much a youthful work as the Second Serenade by Brams, written in 1859 and dedicated to Clara Schumann; its five movements call for a rather more sober orchestral arrangement, purged of violins, trombones, trumpets and timpani. And indeed Schubert wrote his Fifth Symphony to have "neither trumpets nor timbales"; and so Gardiner is juxtaposing two works whose links are rather clear. Listeners will appreciate the spontaneity of the live concert recording sound. © SM/Qobuz

So much can be said about this new recording featuring among others − but as the pièce de résistance − Bach’s Magnificat, performed by John Eliot Gardiner, that we simply don’t know where to start! In 1983 – already 35 years ago! – Gardiner gave his first vision of Magnificat BWV 234 in D major; here the version in question is the BWV 234a in E flat major, the original and initial version, the – extended – one Bach wrote as soon as 1723 while the BWV 234 version (more often played nowadays) only arose from adjustments made ten years later. Of course one can debate on the advantages of one over the other but for this recording, Gardiner put emphasis on the brilliance, vibrancy and stunning virtuosity imposed by the E-flat major tone and vigorous tempi, in other words: undeniably modern! Magnificat is preceded by the Mass in F major, one of Bach’s four Lutheran masses, proper gems that are too rarely performed. It’s worth noting that most movements are recycled from previous cantatas, but with thorough rewrites of course! You’ll also find one of Gardiner’s favourite cantatas, Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt (Sweet comfort, my Jesus comes), BWV 151, composed for the Christmas period. With his English Baroque Soloists, his Monteverdi Choir and a broad group of soloists (the alto parts are given to a male voice, it’s worth mentioning in case… it’s not your cup of tea), Gardiner is once again standing on top of a great success.

Recorded live at Pisa Cathedral in 2016, this recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, is of a piece with the touring Bach Cantata Pilgrimage recordings released in the early 2000s: it is rich yet lively, sung with precision yet a total sense of commitment in the moment. The singers -- the Monteverdi Choir of 30 with soloists all drawn from the choir, except for Jesus (Stephan Loges) and the Evangelist (James Gilchrist) -- performed from memory, and the feeling that the text is being communicated directly is even greater than is usual with Gardiner. An unusual feature of the recording is that the soloists are not single per part; the soprano solos are taken by no fewer than five different singers. Several (try Hannah Morrison in "Aus liebe") are lovely, and the effect of a space between the congregational chorales and the focus on an individual soloist is fascinating. The hair-trigger alertness of the chorus in the big numbers like "Sind Blitze, sind Donner in Wolken verschwunden?" is also extremely compelling. Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir offer Bach with the luxury of old-fashioned Romantic versions combined with the agility of historical performance, and they've never done the combination better than they do here. © TiVo

For his new recording of this monument to Bach, John Eliot Gardiner is limited to a light chamber orchestra (obviously the English Baroque Soloists, founded here 37 years ago by Gardiner!), a choir of reasonable size (the Monteverdi Choir, same remark...), and a meticulous - but above all, calm - conducting of the articulations, phrases and lines, almost like a kind of chamber opera. The tempos are rather upbeat, like baroque music back in its heyday - the perfect balance between respecting history and the quest for beauty of sound. Gardiner has nothing dogmatic - making this new recording a particularly welcome perspective among the ample discography(yet unsatisfactory) of this Mass en si. © SM / Qobuz

An early leader in historically informed performances, John Eliot Gardiner was among the first conductors to present the nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven in authentic Classical style, and his 1994 set with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique has become a touchstone. For this live album on Soli Deo Gloria, recorded at Cadogan Hall, London, in 2013, Gardiner and his period ensemble revisit the Symphony No. 2 in D major and the Symphony No. 8 in F major, two of the less frequently performed of Beethoven's symphonies but delightful for their energy and abundant humor. True to expectations, Gardiner's tempos are brisk and his accentuation marked, and the orchestra plays with its characteristic sonorities, which include a glossy string tone, pungent woodwinds, incisive brass, and timpani played with hard mallets. The attention to details highlights Beethoven's original and distinctive style of orchestration, and the musicians' alertness and vitality give these performances an electric charge that is often lacking in conventional performances. This is a follow-up to the 2012 album, Live at Carnegie Hall, in which Gardiner and the ORR played Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies, also on the SDG label, so this disc raises hopes of more live recordings covering the rest of the cycle. © TiVo

British conductor John Eliot Gardiner has generally been more oriented toward foreign music with a strong dramatic element, from Monteverdi to Bach, than to English sacred music. Perhaps it is a surprise, then, that he has turned to English music of the 16th century to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Monteverdi Choir in 2014. Vigilate! takes its title from a piece by William Byrd, who is represented six times here, but the focus is not exclusively on the closeted Catholics of the century's end. Instead Gardiner draws generally from music across a turbulent century, most but not all of it in Latin. As with many of his other recordings, Gardiner is willing to sacrifice a bit of precision in favor of emotional insight and expression, and that's a good trade-off in a field awash with recordings by venerable cathedral choirs. Gardiner's mixed-gender adult choir digs into the dark shades of Thomas Tallis' Suscipe quaeso Domine, sustains the lengthy despair of Robert White's Lamentations for six voices, and attacks with gusto the dissonances in the sparsely performed Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, by Thomas Tomkins. Hardly a typical album of Renaissance English polyphony, but an unusually affecting one. © TiVo

After the completion of the magisterial touring sequence of Bach cantatas from conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, it seems that the prolific music-making will continue with non-cantata works. This strong recording of Bach's Easter Oratorio, BWV 249, was released just in time for the 2014 Easter holiday and should find the same demand as the rest of Gardiner's output. The Easter Oratorio is more an oversized cantata than a full-scale treatment with narrator, chorus, and soloists in the manner of Bach's other large religious works; it has no narrating Evangelist, consists mostly of solos in dialogue with each other, and apparently was actually adapted from an earlier pastoral birthday cantata. The performance here has the positives typical of Gardiner's Bach recordings: warmth, deep familiarity with the texts, and smooth ensemble work born of long acquaintance among the musicians. The choir of 23 is perfectly sized for the work, and the sound, with Gardiner's engineers no longer constrained by the requirements of the churches where the ensemble appeared on tour, is unusually clear. The soloists are drawn from the choir, a slight negative given that the Easter Oratorio stands or falls on its solos; they actually do better in the intimate funeral Cantata No. 106, BWV 106 ("Actus Tragicus"), that opens the program. In general, though, this is a release that Gardiner fans will be glad to have. © TiVo

John Eliot Gardiner's 1991 Archiv recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123, remains a high point of his catalog, but that hasn't prevented him from revisiting this masterpiece. On October 17, 2012, Gardiner led a live radio broadcast from the Barbican in London, and delivered a thrilling performance that has been released by BBC Radio 3. Performed by the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, and featuring a virtuosic quartet of soprano Lucy Crowe, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, tenor James Gilchrist, and bass Matthew Rose, Beethoven's great mass is given a period reading, yet it sounds as robust and assertive as any mainstream interpretation. Gardiner has never been especially delicate in Romantic works, and even though one might think refinement is the hallmark of historically informed performances, he puts enough force and vigor into this rendition to dispose of that notion for good. Tempos are on the fast side, attacks are incisive, and the rhythms are strongly accented, so the music is almost combative in its directness. While this is an exciting Missa Solemnis, above all in the riveting Gloria, it falls a bit short of expressing Beethoven's compassion and humanity in the Kyrie, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei. Gardiner's version is clear-headed, if a little severe at times, and it is decidedly bracing, but there are more reflective and moving recordings available. © TiVo

This is the 28th and final album in British conductor John Eliot Gardiner's cycle of Bach's cantatas with his Monteverdi Choir, and it comes with a two-page list of financial backers akin to the subscribers who might have financed secular music in an earlier day. The music was recorded, live with later tweaking, at St. Giles Cripplegate church, London, after the choir had completed its tour of continental churches, performing appropriate cantatas for the day or week of the concert (this one was not performed during Ascension Week, but it's hard to detect any loss of the immediacy of music-making that has been the series' trademark). The series doesn't exactly end with a bang, for the so-called Himmelfahrtsoratorium, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, is added to three cantatas; this recitative-heavy little oratorio, included because of its liturgical link to the cantatas (all the music was intended for the Feast of the Ascension), is rarely performed. But Gardiner and company show no evidence of flagging energy; the choruses of the cantatas depicting Christ's ascent into heaven are exuberant; Gardiner's warm humanistic tone is in evidence throughout; and the booklet comes with a fine installment of Gardiner's strikingly detailed engagement with the texts of the cantatas and Bach's response to them. A nice feature of this installment is that the soloists in a sense come full circle; bass Dietrich Henschel was featured in some of the earliest concerts in the project, while the other three soloists are new. It is safe to say that they will be feeling the influence of Gardiner's achievement throughout their careers. © TiVo

John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique were part of the late 20th century vanguard that introduced period performance practices to the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, and their classic 1994 cycle alerted musicians everywhere to the possibilities of applying historical research to familiar warhorses. On November 16, 2011, Gardiner and his musicians revisited the Symphony No. 5 in C minor and the Symphony No. 7 in A major in a concert at Carnegie Hall, recorded by WQXR, and the performances compare favorably with the earier recordings on Archiv. Gardiner's Beethoven is almost always brisk and bristling with nervous energy, and this is apparent in the quick tempos and the sharp attacks he asks of his players. Even the slow movements are played con moto, with a real feeling of forward motion and urgency that almost seems aggressive. But this style of playing Beethoven has won many supporters and practically become mainstream, as historically informed performances increase in availability and audiences learn to appreciate the sounds of authentic instruments, the appropriate Classical ensemble size, and the techniques that were employed in Beethoven's time. While the performances meet the highest expectations, from time to time the audio is a little unbalanced in dynamics, suggesting a problem with microphone placement or mixing. © TiVo

John Eliot Gardiner literally has a lifetime of intimate familiarity with J.S. Bach's six motets without independent instrumental accompaniment; he reports that as a boy chorister of 11 or 12 he knew the treble lines to all of them. That familiarity is evident in these exceptionally insightful and exceptionally well-sung performances with the Monteverdi Choir. The group lives up to its reputation as being in the very highest echelon of choirs worldwide, singing these especially treacherous works with almost superhuman precision, immaculate tone and balance, and infectious, unguarded passion. The singers handle Bach's exquisitely interwoven counterpoint with apparent ease even at the outrageously fast but emotionally appropriate tempos that Gardiner takes. He avoids the academic rigidity that can easily prevail in performances of counterpoint this intricate by always maintaining a dancing sense of lightness and buoyancy. The performances are also characterized by a warm intimacy. That's due at least in part the choir's remarkable control of dynamics; at its quietest moments the music comes across as an almost hushed whisper. That, in combination with the stellar engineering, creates the impression that the listener is being treated to a private performance by singers nearly close enough to reach out and touch. At the same time there is no sense of crowding and the performers have plenty of room for their singing to ring out brilliantly. Gardiner deploys a small continuo group colorfully but discreetly, offering an ideally balanced underpinning for the choir. Listeners who want to hear these small masterpieces need look no further than these exemplary and thoroughly engaging performances. Highly recommended. © TiVo

This live 2008 performance of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem is John Eliot Gardiner's second recording of the piece, the first from 1991, and he uses the same performing forces, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. This second interpretation is part of his Brahms series, begun in 2008, which includes the four symphonies, for the label Soli Deo Gloria. The performance is approximately the same length as his earlier version and clocks in at less than 65 minutes, considerably shorter than the usual performance of the Requiem, making it one of the shortest recorded versions, in fact. Gardiner generates genuine excitement with his propulsive tempos in the faster sections. The first two movements in particular are taken at a clip that has logic to its momentum, but that may not please listeners who are used to a grander, more magisterial unfolding of the music. The slightly faster pace works beautifully in "Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen," which Gardiner invests with a gracious lilt that also manages to convey serenity. "Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt" especially benefits from the urgency of Gardiner's energy. Katherine Fuge and Matthew Brook are entirely persuasive in their solos and have warmly enveloping voices. The orchestra's tonal color may be the most controversial aspects of the recording. Although with almost 70 members Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is by no means small, there are many points, particularly in the Requiem's quieter moments, when it sounds more like a chamber orchestra. This has the advantage of making the inner voices and counterpoint more easily audible, so details that are sometimes lost with larger orchestras are clear. The ensemble as a whole, and the strings in particular, has something of an early music sound, a timbral tartness (especially noticeable in the first movement) where more warmth and sweetness are usually expected in this repertoire. There is nothing reserved in Gardiner's hot-blooded reading, or in the performance of the chorus, though, so the juxtaposition of the timbral austerity and interpretive passion makes for an intriguing if unusual performance. The album opens with two of Heinrich Schütz's settings (using only an understated continuo accompaniment) of texts that Brahms used in the Requiem, and they provide a fascinating context for Gardiner's unconventional take on the Brahms. © TiVo

Johann Christoph Bach, not to be confused with Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, was Johann Sebastian Bach's first cousin once removed. An organist and ducal employee at Eisenach, he died in 1703 and was thus a good deal older than J.S. Bach. He may well have been among the great man's influences; the works recorded here have a certain combination of intense expressivity and careful structure that brings the younger composer to mind. They do not outwardly sound like J.S. Bach, however; they come from a generation before him and show a different kind of influence from Italian music. Especially as performed here by the English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner, with one voice per part in all the music, they sound a bit like Buxtehude's small religious vocal pieces. The motets might be performed by a choir, but the basically declamatory nature of the language works reasonably well in this kind of setting, and the intensely text-centered, reverent approach cultivated by Gardiner presents this music at its best; the atmosphere in most of these works is prayerful and quite intense. Most of the music is based on biblical texts and reflects the fervent, somber brand of Lutheranism associated with the younger Bach cousin, but the finale, Meine Freundin, du bist schön, was apparently a sort of secular wedding cantata. At least it seems to be; not that much is known of this Bach's music, and it's possible that the piece is one of those works in which Eros is used to allegorize the relationship between the soul and Christ. But if so, it's one of the most involved metaphors on record. At the very least, it makes a charming conclusion to a quietly meditative and altogether lovely recording. Any suspicion that Gardiner was trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel after the conclusion of his successful Bach cantata series has proved unjustified; this is a recording that succeeds on its own terms. © TiVo

John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists come to Bach's St. John Passion after their ambitious traversal of all the church cantatas, so they are immersed in the subtleties of the composer's expressive sensibilities and musical styles. Their performance of the St. John Passion is emotionally explosive and often darkly dramatic; the opening chorus, for instance, is roiling and tumultuous, almost chaotic, a wrenching opening to the passion narrative. As dark as the tone is, it is never murky; this is the darkness of obsidian whose blackness is revealed when light glints off its sharply defined surfaces. The performances of the soloists match the brilliance, finesse, and clarity of the chorus and orchestra. As the Narrator, tenor Mark Padmore sings with urgency and acute sensitivity to the text; he comes across as an engrossing storyteller. His voice has an exemplary purity and he is equally impressive in the lyrical tenor arias. Bass Hanno Müller-Brachmann is a warmly sympathetic Jesus, and bass Peter Harvey is a forceful Pilate. The remaining soloists, all of whom are excellent, have relatively small parts in the passion, but soprano Joann Lunn and Bernarda Fink are standouts. The recording offers clean and exceptionally well-defined sound. Gardiner's version should be especially attractive to listeners looking for a polishedperformance that emphasizes the emotionally charged atmosphere of the score. © TiVo

Anyone who has followed the career of John Eliot Gardiner knows that he is one of the world's leading authorities on authentic performance practices, and that his approach to Baroque and Classical music involves using original instruments, choosing the proper size of ensemble, and playing the music in the style of the time period. In the case of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543, and the Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, "Jupiter," Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, a chamber-size orchestra, meet all expectations. Rhythms are crisp and precise, the strings play with minimal vibrato and have a lustrous aural sheen, the winds and brass have the distinctive colors of pre-modern instruments, and the sound of the ensemble is close and intimate. In terms of his tempos, Gardiner is fairly close to accepted mainstream speeds, so the music doesn't seem especially brisk, but at no point is the pacing excessvely slow. The fastest tempo is taken in the Finale of the "Jupiter," which warrants it for the sake of building excitement in Mozart's multi-subject fugue. These live performances have remarkably noise-free reproduction, and the timbres of the orchestra are vibrant and alive, despite the sound-absorbing properties of an audience. © TiVo