John Eliot Gardiner

In 1968, John Eliot Gardiner founded the Monteverdi Orchestra and performed with the new ensemble that same year at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in London. Barely ten years later, members of the Monteverdi Orchestra formed the English Baroque Soloists – today one of the leading orchestras performing on historical instruments – who debuted in 1977 at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music with Handel's Acis and Galatea. The recording of this work was honored in 1978 by the English music magazine Gramophone as “Best Early Music Recording.” In 1990, John Eliot Gardiner founded a new orchestra performing on original instruments: the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. John Eliot Gardiner, entrusted with important positions by orchestras, opera houses, and festivals, served as chief conductor of the Vancouver Orchestra from 1980 to 1983. During the following five years as music director of the Opéra de Lyon, he founded a new orchestra, which is now considered one of the best in France. As artistic director of the Göttingen Handel Festival (1981–1990), John Eliot Gardiner set new standards with numerous performances and recordings. In 1991, he became chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1994. As a guest conductor, John Eliot Gardiner has successfully collaborated with major international symphony orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orkest, and the Vienna Philharmonic. John Eliot Gardiner debuted at the English National Opera in 1969 with The Magic Flute. This was followed in 1973 by his Covent Garden debut with Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride. He first performed in America in 1979 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. On the occasion of the Monteverdi Choir's 25th anniversary, he undertook a world tour in 1989 with performances of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, which were documented for film, video, and Archiv Produktion recordings. At the Salzburg Festival in 1990, he debuted with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists as part of an Orfeo cycle (Monteverdi and Gluck) and within the serenade concerts. John Eliot Gardiner has already undertaken numerous tours with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. In 1995, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time at the Salzburg Festival. In 1997, John Eliot Gardiner's Schumann Festival took place at the Barbican Centre in London and the Cité de la musique in Paris. After extensively exploring the works of Beethoven and the post-Beethoven era in recent years, Bach's church cantatas are now at the center of his work; in 2000, in particular, he will exclusively focus on this theme. Since his first recording with the English Baroque Soloists for Archiv Produktion (Acis and Galatea), numerous award-winning recordings have been produced: Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, Orfeo, Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, Purcell's Fairy Queen, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, and Haydn's The Seasons. A special project was his recording cycle of the great Mozart operas: Idomeneo, La clemenza di Tito, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute. For his highly acclaimed series of Mozart opera recordings and his successful concert performances, including at the Holland Festival, John Eliot Gardiner received the Edison Extraordinaire. Another opera recording with the English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi's Poppea, and his recording of Haydn's Creation were released in 1996. He conducted the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in Beethoven's Missa solemnis, in a complete Beethoven symphony cycle, Leonore, and a Beethoven piano concerto cycle with Robert Levin, which he concluded in 1998 with the release of the recording of the Third and Fourth Concertos, as well as in a Schumann symphony cycle, which also came out in 1998. For the Yellow Label, John Eliot Gardiner has presented recordings with the NDR Symphony Orchestra featuring works by Brahms and Dvořák (1992), Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (1993), and Speak Low, a recording of Kurt Weill songs with Anne Sofie von Otter (1994), followed in 1996 by another with Mahler and Zemlinsky songs. His first recording with the Vienna Philharmonic was Lehár's Merry Widow; in the second, he dedicated himself to works by Chabrier. Releases in 1998 include two recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, Schubert's Ninth Symphony and Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, as well as Mendelssohn's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Most recently, he completed a recording with this orchestra featuring works by Elgar. In addition to countless awards for his recordings, John Eliot Gardiner was honored as “Artist of the Year 1994” (Gramophone Award and Deutsche Schallplattenkritik), “Conductor of the Year” (Klassik Echo Award 1995), “Best Conductor” (Cannes Classical Award 1995), and in 1995 as the first conductor to receive the Dietrich Buxtehude Prize. John Eliot Gardiner received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lyon (1987), was appointed “Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” (1988), and “Commander of the British Empire” (1990). Since 1992, he has been an honorary member of King's College London and the Royal Academy of Music. In 1998, John Eliot Gardiner was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of the “June Birthday Honours.”