Maria João Pires (piano)London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
LSO Live · LSO0765 · 79 minutes
Pires playing Schumann is one of those pairings that just makes sense — she’s never been an interpreter who forces anything, and that concerto in particular needs someone willing to let the melancholy breathe rather than dramatize it. Gardiner and the LSO give her exactly the kind of alert, transparent accompaniment that lets her sound spontaneous, and the Mendelssohn on the same disc has that same quality of lightness that never tips into weightlessness. It’s the sort of pairing that reminds you these two composers were writing to and for each other, not just living in the same decade.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 20th October 2014
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2015 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2014
- Presto Favourites — Recommended Recording
“[Pires] has the enviable ability to make everything sound fresh but natural, and her tone is enchanting…The definition on [the Blu-ray] is superb and the camera work actually helps the viewer…”
— BBC Music Magazine, February 2015,3 out of 5 stars/5 out of 5 stars
Louise Alder (Semele), Hugo Hymas (Jupiter), Lucile Richardot (Juno/Ino), Carlo Vistoli (Athamas), Gianluca Buratto (Somnus/Cadmus), Emily Owen (Iris), Angela Hicks (Cupid), Peter Davoren (Apollo)English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
SDG · SDG733 · 2 hours 35 minutes
Handel’s Semele is such a strange, delicious hybrid — half oratorio, half opera, all sly wit — and it demands a soprano willing to be genuinely funny before she’s genuinely tragic. Louise Alder gets that balance completely right, sliding from silky vanity into real heartbreak without ever losing the thread of who Semele is, and Lucile Richardot’s Juno gives her a foil sharp enough to make the whole thing crackle. Gardiner’s forces play it light on their feet but never trivial, which is exactly the trick this score needs.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — September 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recording of the Week — 2nd October 2020
- BBC Music Magazine — Christmas 2020 — Opera Choice
- The Times Records of the Year — 2020
“Alder is riveting in the title role as she mutates from soft seductress to vain brat to crushed victim, applying a range of styles to develop her character…Richardot’s intensity equals Alder’s,…”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020,5 out of 5 stars(Performance) /4 out of 5 stars(Recording)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
LSO Live · LSO0769 · 62 minutes
There’s something almost teenage about Mendelssohn’s First Symphony — all that surging energy from a composer barely out of his teens himself — and Gardiner leans hard into that youthful impatience rather than smoothing it over. Then the “Italian” arrives and you get the payoff: those winds cutting through with the kind of clarity that makes the finale feel like it’s sprinting downhill, just on the edge of control. It’s a pairing that makes total sense once you hear it, tracing a straight line from student energy to full-blown mastery.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 9th September 2016
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2016 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2016
“Gardiner keeps the LSO on its toes both in the C minor work and the Italian symphony, the winds producing crystal-clear articulation the hair-raisingly fast account of the latter’s concluding…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2016,3 out of 5 stars
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
SDG · SDG716 · 72 minutes
There’s something almost superhuman about Bach’s motets — eight-part textures woven so densely you’d think they needed an orchestra, and yet they’re built for voices alone. Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir lean into that intensity rather than smoothing it over, finding real muscularity in the polyphony without losing the sense of prayer underneath it. The BBC review nailed it when it mentioned the choir shifting from ferocity to tenderness in an instant — that’s exactly the kind of emotional whiplash that makes these pieces feel alive rather than reverent museum pieces.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — August 2012 — Choral & Song Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — August 2012 — Disc of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2013 — Winner – Baroque Vocal
“the Monteverdi Choir can turn from Rottweiler into lamb in the blink of an eye…Some might fine Gardiner’s approach theatrical; he could persuasively counter that the motets engage unflinchingly…”
— BBC Music Magazine, August 2012,5 out of 5 stars
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
LSO Live · LSO0818 · 69 minutes
Schumann gets a bad rap for supposedly muddy orchestration, but Gardiner has spent decades proving that’s nonsense when the playing has enough bite and clarity, and this pairing of the Second and Fourth makes the case beautifully. The LSO digs into the Second’s slow movement with real ache, while the Fourth barrels forward with that thrilling sense of a single unbroken thought that Schumann intended but rarely gets. There’s an urgency here that feels less like a studio recording and more like you’ve wandered into a performance mid-thought.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 20th September 2019
- International Classical Music Awards — 2019 — Nominee – Symphonic Music
“Gardiner [goes] all out for visceral sensation. The London performances bring the music most readily to life.”
— Gramophone Magazine, December 2019
Hannah Morrison (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo), Meg Bragle (alto), Kate Symonds-Joy (alto), Peter Davoren (tenor), Nick Pritchard (tenor), Alex Ashworth (bass), David Shipley (bass)Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
SDG · SDG722 · 1 hour 45 minutes
There’s a reason Gardiner came back to this piece decades into his career rather than leaving well enough alone — the B minor Mass never quite settles into a single interpretation, and his second attempt feels like a genuine rethink rather than a victory lap. The Monteverdi Choir sound extraordinarily alive here, with textures that stay transparent even at full cry in the Gloria, and the English Baroque Soloists give the dance movements a lift that reminds you Bach was writing this stuff with real physical joy, not just theological weight. What stays with you afterward is the sense of proportion: nothing is rushed, nothing indulged, and the whole thing builds toward the final Dona nobis pacem like it’s been the destination all along.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2026 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2015
- Gramophone Awards — 2016 — Shortlisted – Baroque Vocal
“Gardiner’s second recording of the B minor Mass is a predictably exhilarating experience. The opening Kyrie, paced to perfection, leaves one amazed afresh…the chorus (which supplies the mostly…”
— Sunday Times, 17th January 2016
James Gilchrist (Evangelist), Stephan Loges (Jesus), Hannah Morrison, Zoë Brookshaw, Charlotte Ashley (soprano), Reginald Mobley, Eleanor Minney (alto), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Ashley Riches, Alex Ashworth, Jonathan Sells (bass)English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Trinity Boys Choir, Sir…
SDG · SDG725 · 2 hours 40 minutes
James Gilchrist’s Evangelist is the kind of narration that makes you forget you’re listening to a nearly three-hour retelling you already know the ending to — every inflection feels newly discovered, like he’s genuinely working out how the story lands as he goes. Gardiner’s forces bring that same immediacy to the turba choruses, snapping between menace and grief without ever tipping into melodrama, while the two-choir spatial writing gets room to breathe rather than blur. It’s a Passion that trusts Bach’s pacing completely, letting the long stretches of recitative do their quiet devastating work.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 17th March 2017
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2017 — Disc of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2017 — Finalist – Baroque Vocal
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2017
“James Gilchrist is among the most communicative of storytellers and his lightly articulated, subtly nuanced declamation and, where required, sense of urgency are eloquent and dependable…the…”
— BBC Music Magazine, July 2017,3 out of 5 stars
Joanne Lunne, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Paul Agnew, Dietrich Henschel, Gillian KeithThe Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
SDG · SDG101 · 2 hours 27 minutes
What strikes you first about this opening volume is the sheer stamina behind it — Gardiner and his forces recorded these cantatas live, church by church, across an entire year of touring Europe, and you can hear that pilgrimage spirit in every phrase. There’s an urgency and rawness to these performances that studio polish often smooths away, with the Monteverdi Choir sounding fully alive to the text and the English Baroque Soloists digging into Bach’s instrumental writing like it still has something urgent to say. Two and a half hours in, you start to understand why this project became one of the defining Bach recordings of its generation.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — March 2005 — Disc of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2005 — Recording of the Year
- Gramophone Awards — 2005 — Winner – Baroque Vocal
“In 2000 John Eliot Gardiner commemorated the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death with theBach Cantata Pilgrimage, a year-long European tour by the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
