Breaking: Monteverdis name Gardiner substitute for winter tour
NewsThe Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras have engaged the Frenchman Christophe Rousset in place of Sir John Eliot Gardiner on their next tour.
Gardiner, 81, was fired after a violent incident.
Rousset, 63, is a much-recorded harpsichordist and conductor with strong early-music credentials.
He will make his MCO conducting debut in December with concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, La Scala, Milan, and other venues to be confirmed next week. They are likely to include Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus Vienna, Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
The soloists include Hilary Cronin, Bethany Horak- Hallett, Florian Sievers and Florian Störtz.
Rousset is a box-office draw. Whether he matches JEG’s force remains to be tested.
How apt that a countryman of Charles de Gaulle, of “graveyards are full of indispensable people” fame, wield a new broom.
The quote is from Georges Clemenceau, former “Président du Conseil”.
Rousset will more than match Gardiner’s energy – I have wonderful memories of Mozart operas and Haydn/Beethoven symphonies with him leading – it was a pleasure (even if not everyone in the orchestra wanted to go in his HIP direction…).
No pun intended… but he seriously doesn’t have the same clout as Jiggy
No harm at all in giving Rousset a bash. Whether he’ll be quite the knockout that JEG was, time will tell but he does pack quite a punch.
I don’t think they need to have an early-music specialist replace Gardiner.
I’d like to see them think a bit more outside the box, like Vladimir Jurowski, who does a lot of work with the OAE, and is comfortable with a wide range of repertoire.
I noticed, though, that quite a few concerts in that winter tour were eliminated. MCO was supposed to also do that programme in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Luxembourg.
Rousset leads forces on Michael Spyres’s latest album, In The Shadows, devoted to Wagner’s antecedents. Under his direction Rossini, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, von Weber, even early Wagner are colorful and persuasive on period instruments.
Apparently they didn’t want him to go
Which Monteverdis do you mean: the singers, the players, or the managers?