English Baroque Soloists

Founded in 1978 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists have always sought to challenge preconceptions of Baroque and early Classical music. Combining the untamed sound of period instruments, with passionate and virtuosic playing, they have long been established as one of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras. They are equally at home in chamber, symphonic and operatic repertoire, from Monteverdi to Mozart and Haydn, while their ability to communicate music to their audiences, presenting their repertoire as living dialogue, sets them apart. The ensemble has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including La Scala in Milan, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Sydney Opera House. They have performed Mozart’s seven mature operas, recorded all Mozart’s mature symphonies and his complete piano concerto cycle. Besides their independent existence as a period chamber orchestra the English Baroque Soloists also participate regularly in joint projects with the Monteverdi Choir, with whom they famously took part in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, performing all of Bach’s sacred cantatas throughout Europe. The project was recorded by Soli Deo Gloria, the company’s own record label, and hailed as “one of the most ambitious musical projects of all times” by Gramophone magazine. More recently, they joined forces again in a “Bach Marathon” event at the Royal Albert Hall (2013), and collaborated on recordings and tours of Ascension Cantatas (2012) and Bach Motets (2011), both of which reached no 1 in the UK classical charts. In September 2015 they toured Gluck’s Orphée & Eurydice in Hamburg and Versailles following a staged production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in collaboration with the Monteverdi Choir and Hofesh Shechter dance company. 2015 also took them to the U.S. for the 50th anniversary tour of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, whilst in Europe, the group travelled to Munich, Frankfurt, Lucerne and Paris for celebrated performances and a recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.