Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s exit statement
OrchestrasThe following message has just landed from the conductor, via his agency, following his departure from the orchestras he founded:
After a long period of deep consideration and reflection, I have decided to step down as leader and Artistic Director of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras (MCO) with immediate effect.
The MCO, which I founded in 1964, has been the proudest and most inspiring project of my life, and I have arrived at this decision with a heavy heart after six decades of remarkable collaborative achievement.
I have done a great deal of soul searching since the deeply regrettable incident at the Festival Berlioz at La Côte-Saint-André last August and have apologised repeatedly and unreservedly for losing control in such an inappropriate fashion. I have undergone extensive therapy and other counselling over the past 11 months and have learned a great deal about myself and my past behaviour, but I have reached the conclusion that the best way forward for both myself and for the MCO is to accept that a clear change in our relationship is necessary now for the good of both parties.
After extensive discussions with the MCO board, I therefore feel that in the interests of the institution and its richly talented players – many of whom I value as close personal friends – the time has come for us to go our separate ways.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not in any sense ready to retire. I will be focussing on a rich variety of other activities including guest conducting, recording, writing, creative and education projects (to which I am deeply committed) as part of a lighter, lower pressure schedule. I truly feel energised and excited about the future and fully intend to commit wholeheartedly to carrying on the work that I remain passionate about and which is forever part of my DNA.
My profound thanks go to the musicians, singers, sponsors and patrons of the MCO for all of their dedication, creativity and generous support. It has been a magnificent journey.
Ah, the DNA buzzword!
So it’s come that far. 😉
As Napoleon described Mr. Talleyrand: “A pile of s—- in a silk stocking”.
Charming comment.
Ah the internets…
Pretty good statement all things considered. Apparently there are some Whatsapp groups blowing up among the musicians and singers who are fuuurious at the management.
It’s a tragedy, and I would put the F-X Roth case in the same category. Both have given us so much, and both have been cut down by neurotic behaviour apparently beyond the limits of self-control.
Having seen Jiggy working with a French orchestra, by courtesy of ARTE, I hope that his guest conducting work continues for years to come.
Wishing both parties well.
Gardiner is 81 – the same age as Joe Biden. But there is no Kamala Harris to hand the baton to, although there have been some capable guest conductors. Will the Monteverdi Choir brand live on? Will it still be booked in the best venues around the world, at the same prices?
This is likely to be bad news, financially and artistically, for the musicians who played and sang for all these years for the Monteverdi organisation. It is hard not to see this as the end of an era.
This is how terror regimes end.
“Après moi, le déluge.”
Nonsensical comment. There has never been leakage problems with the orchestra & choir.
I’m trying to figure out the connection between this and US politcs.
Many people on the site can make connections with a ham sandwich and US politics. They are obsessed…or deranged. Best to just ignore.
Keep trying! American politics a joke!
Instead of going through all this apologetic angst, why doesn’t he just say he’s retiring? He really doesn’t need to grovel and explain anything to people.
Probably because he ain’t retiring?
Why doesn’t he just say he’s retiring? Probably because (a) the Board’s statement already made clear that he was fired, and (b) if he wants to be hired for guest-conducting gigs, he needs to make the organizations engaging him believe that he won’t scream at or hit people.
Because he is not restoring, simple!!!
Such is the press and price of true brilliance.
It sounds more like a diplomatical statement build by a team of lawyers than a sincere good by by a great artist, the best conductor I have ever known. Thanks for everything Mr Gardiner, push on, dont let them ride on your life.
Interesting take! I didn’t pick up on anything lawyer-like in the statement at all (and I’ve probably read more lawyer letters than I’ve had days on this earth).
As for the substance of it all, it seems quite clear to me that these were two parties who couldn’t reach a resolution and they’ve both gone their separate ways separately rather than together, which is somewhat tragic given the extraordinary history between the two.
On the quality of the statements alone;
Gardiner 1 – MCO 0
The MCO certainly comes out of this worse by kicking-out their own founder and figurehead. In terms of the survival of the MCO this is a very poor decision and the start of a slow decline.
Sousa is no replacement at all in the long-term and I have the impression that people are just putting-up with him while they wait for Gardiner to come back.
Meanwhile Gardiner will carry on guest conducting elsewhere and have a fine time.
Well, *if* the lessons of the anger management classes actually took.
Classy statement.
Incidentally, I know so many of the singers, musicians and also friends of Will Thomas. And I’ve never spoke to anyone who isn’t certain that there’s another side to this story. From what I hear, JEG is very unlucky and has been badly treated here. Maybe the board wanted him out for other reasons, but this event shouldn’t have ever been the sole reason. There’s a side here that hasn’t been told.
What side is it? Would like to know it… Gardiner is a great musician. Please let us know! (-:
Good riddance. This was not an isolated incident: he’s been bullying and abusing those below him for years.
So he slapped a singer big deal, he was upholding a standard one way or another. Berlioz operas need a champion.
Interesting value statement, probably shared by the Manchester constable who thought stamping on a suspect’s head was upholding the standards of law enforcement. As one who has worked closely with MCO, it is a genuine tragedy that such high artistic achievement has come at such repeated interpersonal cost. He has never lacked sycophants (including some previous Board members) who excused his bad behaviour on such spurious grounds as yours, or who looked the other way snd did nothing. Nevertheless my admiration for his music making remains.
Given the MCO’s statement, he was clearly pushed out the door, or Bidened, if you will (that term should become part of the current lexicon; you’re welcome). As I wrote elsewhere:
I haven’t been shy about expressing my revulsion for *most* of the HIP establishment and the preponderance of their performances. However, JEG was one of the few, true musicians among that otherwise execrable cohort. As it turns out, given the way the MCO has chosen career execution as a remedy for what was at worst a misdemeanor, it is apparent that these people are not only reprehensible “musicians”, but human beings as well. The punishment is out of all proportion to the crime, and I hope JEG avails himself of any and all legal remedies at his disposal. For whatever it’s worth, his (nearly) complete Bach cantata cycle is a monumental achievement, and truly a mighty monument of Western art that will live long after he and all of us have passed. It is impossible for me not to feel a deep sadness and terrible rage that the creator of one of the greatest recording projects ever undertaken, of some of the greatest music mankind has ever produced, has suffered, I believe unjustly, such an ignominious fate. Rest assured that I will henceforth avoid like the plague anything the MCO produces, and I hope many others do likewise. An overused term, but this is truly, for once, a veritable outrage.
The musicians didn’t want him out- it was the Board who did.
Punching someone in the face is criminal assault in the UK, not ‘at worst a misdemeanor’. How sad that such a great musician can also be someone unable to control his temper in a professional setting (and it is well known that this was not the first such incident, although perhaps it was the worst). His statement made it clear that he has finally realized that he has a real problem, and that perhaps it cannot be solved so easily.
I do not think the musicians of the MCO deserve to be boycotted because of JEG’s intractable personality problems.
You obviously only know part of the story. This is the culmination of decades of appalling behaviour. He was extremely lucky to make it this far.
This shows how a good therapist can make a difference.
Maybe too much to guess, but I can imagine he has repeated, at every session: ‘But please try to realize… these are people, like yourself.’
The Jegxit is complete
Sorry John;
If you hammer a nail into a piece of wood and then remove the nail, what is left?…. the hole, obviously.
Given your past actions, your letter of resignation will not redeem you from your future engagements.
It shall be hard for anyone to forget them.
I have it on good authority that he hates being called John, his first names are John Eliot prefaced by Sir, which he also insists upon as an entitled old white male thug. You get my thumbs up for the solo John alone. Whatever his musical gifts and accomplishments (the merits of which can be debated), he is not a gentleman.
He’s not retiring.
JEG has history
He is 82. By all accounts this was not the first time he went out of control in a professional situation.Perhaps he has left his soul-searching and extensive therapy too late? Nevertheless, this is very sad for the world of music and deeply tragic for him personally.
If only he had gotten this out before they fired him.
Ironic that a master musician has such poor timing and is unable to take his cue.
The only way Gardiner could have salvaged his reputation a year ago was to have resigned then, and pledged to help MCO retain its donors by making a large donation of his own that he asked longtime supporters to match.
Had the story been he was the one who decided to end the relationship and he helped raised a lot of money to get the MCO through the transition, people would have said that was classy, and year later he’d likely be back to get prestigious guest conducting gigs.
You missed him conducting Radio France three weeks ago then?
For what it’s worth, JEG and the MCO has opened up a world of baroque vocal music for me that was closed before I heard them. JEG has a way of shaping lines whilst still revealing the clarity of the counterpoint. May his recordings always be remembered.