English Baroque Soloists
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Handel: Semele
RecommendedLouise Alder (Semele), Hugo Hymas (Jupiter), Lucile Richardot (Juno/Ino), Carlo Vistoli (Athamas), Gianluca Buratto (Somnus/Cadmus), Emily Owen (Iris), Angela Hicks (Cupid), Peter Davoren (Apollo)
English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Alder is riveting in the title role as she mutates from soft seductress to vain brat to crushed victim, applying a range of styles to develop her character...Richardot’s intensity equals Alder’s,... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 2nd October 2020
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020, Opera Choice
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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J S Bach: Motets
RecommendedRecorded live in London, St John’s Smith Square, 2011
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
the Monteverdi Choir can turn from Rottweiler into lamb in the blink of an eye...Some might fine Gardiner's approach theatrical; he could persuasively counter that the motets engage unflinchingly... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2012, Choral & Song Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2012, Disc of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2013, Winner - Baroque Vocal
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Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244
RecommendedJames Gilchrist (Evangelist), Stephan Loges (Jesus), Hannah Morrison, Zoë Brookshaw, Charlotte Ashley (soprano), Reginald Mobley, Eleanor Minney (alto), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Ashley Riches, Alex Ashworth, Jonathan Sells (bass)
English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Trinity Boys Choir, Sir...
James Gilchrist is among the most communicative of storytellers and his lightly articulated, subtly nuanced declamation and, where required, sense of urgency are eloquent and dependable…the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 17th March 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2017, Disc of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2017, Finalist - Baroque Vocal
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Record Review, 15th April 2017, Recording of the Week
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Bach, J S: Mass in B minor, BWV232
RecommendedHannah Morrison (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo), Meg Bragle (alto), Kate Symonds-Joy (alto), Peter Davoren (tenor), Nick Pritchard (tenor), Alex Ashworth (bass), David Shipley (bass)
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Gardiner’s second recording of the B minor Mass is a predictably exhilarating experience. The opening Kyrie, paced to perfection, leaves one amazed afresh…the chorus (which supplies the mostly... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Gramophone Awards, 2016, Shortlisted - Baroque Vocal
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Bach Cantatas Volume 1
RecommendedCantatas for the Feast of St. John the Baptist & Cantatas for the First Sunday after Trinity
Joanne Lunne, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Paul Agnew, Dietrich Henschel, Gillian Keith
The Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
In 2000 John Eliot Gardiner commemorated the 250th anniversary of Bach's death with theBach Cantata Pilgrimage, a year-long European tour by the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2005, Disc of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2005, Recording of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2005, Winner - Baroque Vocal
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Bach Cantatas Volume 10
RecommendedCantatas for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity and for the Feast of the Reformation
Joanne Lunn, William Towers, James Gilchrist, Peter Harvey
The Monteverdi Choir & The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
…Gardiner's lively and articulate responses to Bach's dance rhythms… refresh and enliven the music, often in a quite distinctive way. The mighty fugal chorus of Ein Feste Burg (BWV 80) comes... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, September 2009, First Choice
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Building a Library, March 2010, First Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2006, Disc of the Month
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Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording
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Special offer. Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Furio Zanasi (Ulisse), Lucile Richardot (Penelope), Krystian Adam (Telemaco), Hana Blažíková (Minerva / Fortuna), Gianluca Buratto (Tempo / Nettuno / Antinoo)
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Faced with lots of recitative and practically no arias, singers and players abandon themselves to intense arioso, jazzy cross-rhythms between poetry and continuo, and take-no-prisoners dissonances.... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2019, Recording of the Month
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International Opera Awards, 2019, Nominated - Complete Opera Recording
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JS Bach: Cantatas for Ascension Day
RecommendedLenneke Ruiten (soprano), Meg Bragle (contralto), Andrew Tortise (tenor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone)
The Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
What a swagger Gardiner brings to the beginning of BWV37...Best of all are the ebullient choruses that bookend the oratorio, exhibiting Gardiner's innate Bachian flair, and bringing to an end... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 8th April 2013
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Building a Library, May 2019, Recommended Recording
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Special offer. Handel: Solomon
RecommendedCarolyn Watkinson, Nancy Argenta & Barbara Hendricks
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
With panache [Gardiner] shows how authentic-sized forces can convey Handelian glamour even with sharply focused textures and fast speeds...the overriding glory is the singing of the Monteverdi... —
Awards:
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Bach, J S: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-6 BWV1046-1051
RecommendedKatie Debretzeni
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
…a constant delight. …Kati Debretzeni deserves the highest praise: her phrasing, punctuation and inflective charm contain all the communicative apparatus of the finest oratory, bringing, to... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, December 2017, First Choice
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