* En anglais uniquement
The
English Baroque Soloists has established itself among the world's leading period instrument orchestras. Founder and artistic director
John Eliot Gardiner regularly joins his
English Baroque Soloists and
Monteverdi Choir in opera and choral performances. The
EBS repertoire takes in music from the Classical period as well as the Baroque. Together, the groups launched the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, performing all of
Bach's sacred cantatas throughout Europe. The
EBS has toured widely and has been heard on over 100 recordings. In 2020, the
EBS and
Monteverdi Choir, under
Gardiner, issued a recording of
Handel: Semele.
Although the
English Baroque Soloists was officially established as a chamber ensemble of period instruments in 1978, the group actually gave its first concert at the 1977 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, in a performance of
Handel's Acis and Galatea. Founded by
John Eliot Gardiner, the
EBS drew many of its original members from another group
Gardiner had founded (in 1968), the
Monteverdi Orchestra. Shortly after its founding,
Bach and
Handel were largely the focus of the
EBS. However, the group became closely associated with
Mozart's music, mainly because of its numerous, generally highly acclaimed recordings of his works. In 1984,
Gardiner and the
EBS launched a series for the Archiv Produktion label devoted to
Mozart's concertos for piano and orchestra with soloist
Malcolm Bilson (using a fortepiano) and the first such cycle using period instruments. Two years later, with the concerto series ongoing, it launched another
Mozart project, this one to cover the mature symphonies for Philips. In the summer of 1990, the
EBS debuted at the Salzburg Festival, giving three concerts, all to critical acclaim.
With the 1990 release of Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491, and No. 27, K. 595, the
piano concerto series was completed, but the
EBS and
Gardiner immediately set to work recording the seven mature operas of
Mozart for Archiv Produktion. The first release in this cycle,
Idomeneo, won Gramophone's Best Opera Award in 1991. In that same year,
Gardiner, the
EBS, and the
Monteverdi Choir appeared in a live BBC television broadcast of
Mozart's Requiem performed at the Palau de la Música Catalana. The last issue in the
Gardiner/
EBS Mozart operas series,
Die Zauberflöte, was released in 1996, after which it turned to the music of
Bach.
In the late 1990s, a new series of recordings began with the
release in 2000 of
Bach's Cantatas No. 6 "Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend" (BWV 6) and No. 66, "Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen" (BWV 66). Along with the
Monteverdi Choir,
Gardiner and the
EBS performed the entire cycle of 198
Bach cantatas throughout various European churches in 2000 on its Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. The
EBS was hardly focusing on only
Mozart or
Bach in the 1990s: its performance at Covent Garden in 1995 of
Haydn's Die Schöpfung was enthusiastically received and led to a successful
1997 recording on Archiv Produktion. Also, in 1995, the
EBS and the
Monteverdi Choir performed the music for the film England, My England, a highly acclaimed movie directed by Tony Palmer about composer
Henry Purcell. That same year,
Gardiner, the
EBS, and
Monteverdi Choir issued a multi-disc set on the label Erato devoted to
Purcell's music. 2005 saw the creation of the Soli Deo Gloria label by the combined
Gardiner ensembles to issue recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. Since then, the
EBS has issued a number of recordings for the label, including
Handel: Semele, with the
Monteverdi Choir and conducted by
Gardiner, in 2020.