Sir John Eliot Gardiner / Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists Presented by Liszt Academy

‘Greatest Bach researcher’ and ‘Most significant Bach performer’. These and similar epithets have not infrequently been attached to different individuals ever since the rediscovery of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 19th century. However, only few are entitled to bear both titles at the same time. One who most certainly qualifies is John Eliot Gardiner, who in 2000 with his two ensembles (Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists) set out on a literal Bach pilgrimage: for one whole year, week by week he took the Lutheran composer’s cantatas written for a specific feast or date in the church calendar to different parts of the world. Performances were recorded live and then published in a boxed set of 27 CDs; Gardiner himself also wrote the accompanying notes. Besides the fact that Gardiner’s performances of Bach have been the culmination of Bach interpretation for decades, his work as a Bach researcher is also important. He published the monograph Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven in 2013 and he has been head of the Bach Archive in Leipzig since 2014.