The extent of Gardiner's repertoire is illustrated in the extensive catalogue of award-winning recordings with his own ensembles and leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic on major labels (including Decca, Philips, Erato, and more than 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon), as wide-ranging as Mozart, Schumann, Berlioz, Elgar, and Kurt Weill, in addition to works by Renaissance and Baroque composers. Since 2005 the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras have recorded on their independent label, Soli Deo Gloria, established to release the live recordings made during Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, for which he received Gramophone's 2011 Special Achievement Award and a Diapason d'or de l'année 2012. His many recording accolades include two GRAMMY awards, and he has received more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist.
Gardiner's long relationship with the LSO has led to complete symphony cycles and numerous recordings on LSO Live, most recently of Mendelssohn and Schumann; in June 2022, he conducted the LSO with soloist Maria João Pires at the Barbican and LSO St Luke’s and on tour to Granada Festival. Guest conducting highlights this season include invitations to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Haydn, Weber, and Schubert), Philharmonia (Mendelssohn, Elgar, and Dvořák), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Chabrier, Debussy, and Stravinsky), Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (Brahms choral works and Dvořák Symphony No. 5), and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Brahms symphonies).
Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras perform regularly at the world's major venues and festivals, including Salzburg, Berlin and Lucerne festivals, the Lincoln Center, and the Royal Albert Hall; in 2022, Gardiner made his 61st appearance at the BBC Proms conducting Beethoven’s supreme spiritual testament Missa Solemnis. 2023 marks Gardiner’s 80th birthday year, which the MCO celebrate with performances of Bach’s Mass in B minor on tour around Europe. In 2017, the MCO celebrated the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi, for which they were awarded the RPS Music Award and Gardiner named Conductor of the Year at the Opernwelt Awards. Gardiner has conducted opera productions at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de Paris, Royal Opera House, and most recently at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2021 with Verdi’s Falstaff. From 1983 to 1988 he was artistic director of Opéra de Lyon, where he founded its new orchestra.
Gardiner's book, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, leading to the Prix des Muses award (Singer-Polignac). From 2014 to 2017 Gardiner was the first ever President of the BachArchiv Leipzig. Among numerous awards in recognition of his work, Sir John Eliot Gardiner holds honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, the universities of Lyon, Cremona, St Andrews and King’s College, Cambridge where he himself studied and is now an Honorary Fellow; he is also an Honorary Fellow of King's College, London and the British Academy, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, who awarded him their prestigious Bach Prize in 2008; he became the inaugural Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in 2014/15 and was awarded the Concertgebouw Prize in January 2016. Gardiner was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2011 and was given the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2005. In the UK, he was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and awarded a knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
2022/23 Season / 684 words. Not to be altered without permission.