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 group regularly performs throughout England and Europe. It has given a number of concerts in two London halls, the Barbican and St. John's Smith Square. TheRead more English Baroque Soloists drew many of their original members from another group Gardiner had founded (in 1968), the Monteverdi Orchestra.
Shortly after their founding, it was Bach and Handel who were largely the focus of the EBS. However, the EBS 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 label Archiv Produktion 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, they launched another Mozart project, this one to cover the mature symphonies for Philips. In summer 1990, the EBS debuted at the Salzburg Festival, giving three concerts, all to critical acclaim. The group has since returned numerous times and has also subsequently toured Vienna and Innsbruck. With the release in 1990 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 they 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. But 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 (The Creation) 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 English 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.
The touring schedule of the EBS has been one of the busiest of any orchestra's. In 2002, for example, it included performances of Weber's Oberon in Paris and London; of sixteenth and seventeenth century church music in numerous cities throughout the U.K.; Bach cantatas in Utrecht, Köthen, and Wiesbaden; and numerous other performances in Brussels, Zurich, Baden-Baden, Vienna, Turin, and Athens. By 2002, the EBS appeared on about 70 recordings, making it one of the most heavily recorded orchestras over the years since its founding. Read less
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001933402
Release Date: 11/05/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Katie Pringle,
Nancy Argenta,
Anne Sofie von Otter,
Olaf Bär
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 186
Release Date: 10/29/2013
Number of Discs: 56
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Johann Christoph Bach,
Johann Kuhnau,
Heinrich Schütz
Performer:
Wilke te Brummelstroete,
David Henschel,
Joanne Lunn,
Paul Agnew
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir,
Cambridge Trinity College Choir
...
Label: Dg Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001909902
Release Date: 10/08/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Simon Preston,
Mischa Maisky,
Trevor Pinnock,
Simon Standage
...
Conductor:
Trevor Pinnock,
John E. Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Concert,
English Baroque Soloists
Label: Dg Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001910002
Release Date: 10/08/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Rudolf Serkin,
David Jolley,
Gerald Finley,
Christoph Eschenbach
...
Conductor:
John E. Gardiner,
Claudio Abbado,
Karl Böhm,
Trevor Pinnock
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
English Concert
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 185
Release Date: 04/30/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Meg Bragle,
Lenneke Ruiten,
Andrew Tortise,
Dietrich Henschel
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir
Recommendation
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001826002
Release Date: 04/30/2013
Number of Discs: 30
Composer:
Claudio Monteverdi,
Henry Purcell,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
George Frideric Handel
...
Performer:
Marinella Pennicchi,
Michael Chance,
Mark Tucker,
Bryn Terfel
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir,
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
...
Label: Archiv Produktion (Dg)
Catalog: 001825602
Release Date: 04/23/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Anthony Rolfe Johnson,
Stephen Varcoe,
Nancy Argenta
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir,
London Oratory Junior Choir
...
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001766872
Release Date: 11/13/2012
Number of Discs: 55
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Géza Anda,
Emil Gilels,
Elena Gilels,
Maurizio Pollini
...
Conductor:
Trevor Pinnock,
James Levine,
Herbert von Karajan,
Marc Minkowski
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Concert,
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra,
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Label: Archiv Produktion (Dg)
Catalog: 001719702
Release Date: 09/25/2012
Number of Discs: 50
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
George Frideric Handel,
Domenico Scarlatti,
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
...
Performer:
Peter Harvey,
Stephen Varcoe,
Anthony Rolfe Johnson,
Michael Chance
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner,
Paul McCreesh,
Marc Minkowski,
Trevor Pinnock
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir,
Gabrieli Consort
...
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001651602
Release Date: 03/13/2012
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:
Derek Lee Ragin,
Sylvia McNair,
Cyndia Sieden
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir
Recommendation
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 715
Release Date: 09/27/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Christoph Bach
Performer:
Clare Wilkinson,
Katharine Fuge,
Julia Doyle,
Jeremy Budd
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists
Recommendation
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001493002
Release Date: 11/09/2010
Number of Discs: 7
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
George Frideric Handel,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Traditional
...
Performer:
Hans-Peter Blochwitz,
Olaf Bär,
Anne Sofie von Otter,
Anthony Rolfe Johnson
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner,
Christopher Hogwood,
Valery Gergiev,
Georg Ratzinger
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir,
Academy of Ancient Music
...
Recommendation
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 171
Release Date: 10/26/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Joanne Lunn,
Robin Tyson,
James Gilchrist,
Peter Harvey
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir
Recommendation
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 174
Release Date: 10/26/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Dietrich Henschel,
Bernarda Fink,
Christoph Genz,
Claron McFadden
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists,
Monteverdi Choir
Recommendation
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 168
Release Date: 06/29/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Joanne Lunn,
William Towers,
Paul Agnew,
Gotthold Schwarz
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Monteverdi Choir,
English Baroque Soloists
Recommendation
Label: Soli Deo Gloria Records
Catalog: 165
Release Date: 03/30/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Heinrich Schütz
Performer:
Robin Tyson,
Katharine Fuge,
Vernon Kirk,
Lisa Larsson
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Monteverdi Choir,
English Baroque Soloists
Recommendation
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001396202
Release Date: 02/09/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Giacomo Puccini,
George Frideric Handel,
Gaetano Donizetti
...
Performer:
Karita Mattila,
Montserrat Caballé,
Danielle De Niese,
Elina Garanca
...
Conductor:
John Pritchard,
Sir Colin Davis,
William Christie,
Roberto Abbado
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra,
Les Arts Florissants
...
Recommendation
Label: Voiceprint
Catalog: 1572
Release Date: 09/29/2009
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Henry Purcell
Performer:
David Blackadder,
Michael Chance,
James Bowman,
Jennifer Smith
...
Conductor:
John Eliot Gardiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Baroque Soloists