Just in: John Eliot Gardiner in head-on collision with his former ensembles
OrchestrasThe Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg will feature identical concerts in the same week by Christophe Rousset and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, and by the MCO’s founder Sir John Eliot Gardiner with his newly created ensemble, the Springhead Constellation Orchestra and Choir.
Gardiner, who was sacked by the MCO after a violent incident, has got the first date. It looks a bit like a grudge match.
Make what you like of this Hamburg press release.
9 September 2024: Sir John Eliot Gardiner performs with his newly founded ensembles for the first time on 7 December. The Constellation Choir & Orchestra perform Christmas baroque music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Johann Sebastian Bach in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. The pioneer of historically informed performance practice originally planned to travel to Hamburg a week later with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists with the same programme. However, in July, the ensembles and Gardiner announced their separation after sixty years of collaboration. Gardiner is replaced by French baroque specialist Christophe Rousset on the rostrum for the concert on 14 December.
»It gives me great pleasure to announce the foundation of Springhead Constellation, a unique new project embodying a vibrant collective of musical ensembles, creative artists and makers. Our flagship groups, The Constellation Orchestra and The Constellation Choir will produce ambitious, multidisciplinary performance projects that tour around the world. (…) I am so excited and grateful to be working with such exceptional musicians once again, not forgetting the important lessons I have learnt and needed to learn from the past year,« says Sir John Eliot Gardiner in a press release about his new project.
Christophe Rousset is looking forward to working with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO): »From an early age, I have been a great fan of [MCO] and its founding conductor. Having the chance to work with this wonderful ›instrument‹ at my fingertips is a great privilege.«
In his midnight mass »Messe de minuit«, composed around 1694, Marc-Antoine Charpentier elicits delightful rhythms and timbres from old French Christmas carols. The two Bach cantatas »Schwingt freudig euch empor« and »Unser Mund sei voll Lachens« were composed for the Christmas season in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1731 and 1725 respectively.
The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg is the only place in the world where this special programme can be heard in both first-class interpretations within a very short space of time. Ticketholders of the concert featuring the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists have been given the opportunity to change the date of their tickets if they wish.
Sat, 7 December 2024, Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall
The Constellation Choir & Orchestra
Marie Luise Werneburg soprano
Eline Welle mezzo-soprano
Peter Davoren tenor
Alex Ashworth bass
conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit à 4 voix, flûtes et violons, pour Noël
Johann Sebastian Bach: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c
Johann Sebastian Bach: Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110
Sat, 14 December 2024, Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall
English Baroque Soloists / Monteverdi Choir
Hilary Cronin soprano
Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo-soprano
Florian Sievers tenor
Florian Störtz bass
conductor Christophe Rousset
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit à 4 voix, flûtes et violons, pour Noël
Johann Sebastian Bach: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c
Johann Sebastian Bach: Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110
Sorry, I read that as “the Springhead Cancellation Orchestra and Choir” without even thinking.
Ditto, Edward. Assuming it lasts beyond that first gig, it’s always going to be known in the biz as the Cancellation Choir, isn’t it? But then that’s the thing with Jiggy: it would have been a brave minion who said (John Le Mesurier/Sgt Wilson voice), “Do you think that’s *wise*, John Eliot . . . ?”
I see, incidentally, that the parent company was incorporated at Companies House just 19 days ago. Sole director: John Eliot Gardiner.
I read it as the “Blockhead Contradiction Orchestra and Choir”.
If only Ian Dury were around.
Metropolitan readers may be interested to learn that Springhead is the name of Sir John’s organic farm in Dorset, populated by early music persons in smocks and gaiters. “Shepherd Fennell’s Dance” by Henry Balfour Gardiner, is always a popular favourite.
Just as MCO fired JEG without thinking instead just a typical knee jerk reaction?
This is hilarious history in the making.
The Monteverdis and The Do-As-I-Say-Or-Get-Beaten-Up Chorus and Orchestra wish you all:
Merry Christmas!
Like the number 2 bus, you wait for ever for a performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit à 4 voix, flûtes et violons, pour Noël and then two turn up together! What are the chances of that happening?All a bit daft, isn’t it?
Maybe he thought he’d have another bash.
Barry, go to your room.
give him time; it’s bound to happen.
Why only the number 2 bus? You can wait ages for a 183 and then four appear in convoy!
Aside from the controversies, a music lover will have a rare chance to hear how the two interpretations of the exact same three works differ or coincide, which is a great (unintended) experiment. As a listener, I’d be content to leave the behind-the-scenes drama to the actors and focus on what I can get out of this double-bill.
You are obviously a nice human!
I knew Gardiner would poach some of his ex colleagues and form a new band.
I love his interpretations and wish him well, but performing the same pieces at the same venue in the same week as his old band comes across as pettiness of the highest order. Clearly the time out for reflection and counselling only went skin deep. Shame.
If the promoter reached out to him directly, asking him to conduct, is he supposed to turn down the work?
It was his programming originally thought so I feel that’s a fair move.
That program’d been announced months before Christophe Rousset turned up. Gardiner was planning to do it himself. No reason
to change his plans
I see that oboist Michael Niesemann has left MCO for Gardiner’s new orchestra. He’s been with MCO since the 1990s. Kati Debretzeni has come over too.
Hard to see how MCO survives if Gardiner and the key musicians are competing against them.
Chiminee – There are enough first-class players around nowadays for it not to be a problem!
There are not playing the same program isnt?
Well that’s funny. Are we to read that to mean that there will be no overlap allowed in musicians between the ensembles?
If so, it might be interesting to see who’s playing/singing in which ensemble.
Knowing many of the musicians who play and sing for JEG, it’s not surprising that some may have contacted him and encouraged him to form a new group. Doing identical programmes in the same place might be unnecessarily provocative but he/they is/are making a point! Every concert I have ever done with JEG was outstanding. Do I wish he was a better human – yes! Has he treated me poorly over the years – yes! Do I think he’s a reformed character … unlikely! Would I work with him again – yes! I have survived acidic words from many… let’s face it: the football coaches we revere are not angels…
Fair enough, but from a career point of view, JEG is 80. Will he lead his new ensemble long enough to put it on a sure footing? The MCO are working hard to establish a future after JEG – if a musician is concerned about job security, it’s a big risk to jump to JEG’s new outfit (especially as, for the moment, there’s nothing to indicate this will be a permanent establishment).
We all know he is an odious person, a bully, has a temper and has physical assaulted. Those who carry on playing, singing funding and attending his concerts excuse his terrible personality. Yes they may be worried about a loss of income or fear the wroth of his reaction but seriously, is it worth turning a blind eye to his historical abuse of his players and singers? The answer is no. The cult of his celebrity is sick.
If the programming and dates are any indication, perhaps JEG has not really learned any lessons after all. This smacks of bitterness and spite rather than magnanimity.
There already exist a Constellation Orchestra including recordings on YouTube although I don’t somehow think Elliott Gardener was involved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnTdVzUWC_Y
Yay! Jeggers has created the world’s first spite HIPP ensemble, just like Latte Larry did against Mocha Joe.
https://youtu.be/6YlA6gtha-w?si=9Sn4BjRez_juI51s
I bet they’re hiring the same score parts too. Be a shame if anything happened to them at the first performance.
Ein wettbewerb, nicht wahr?
Ohne Gewinner, vermute ich!
Two fine concerts, one stupendous Kunst.
I suppose the “s” is silent.
We could only wish the other letters, U and A, were also silent.
The ego is a hard thing to let go of.
According to the Elbphilharmonie website, the Monteverdi Choir / Rousset concert is already sold out. Perhaps Sir John’s concert with the Springhead Consolation is for the benefit of the overflow who couldn’t get in?
I hope these solos hit back.
Is it possible to sing and wear gum shields at the same time?
I thought classical music scene was boring.
Rumble in the Jungle all over again
It’s always worth bearing in mind that many players from the MCO have jumped ship to the CCO out of devotion to Sir JEG because of his superb musicianship and conducting skills.
And their understandable lack of backbone.
In some respects, I’m kind of glad he’s destroying his legacy in such a way and leaving a record for posterity that he was a small, petulant (and violent) man.
“the conductor should not have been cancelled because of the imagined opinions of other people ticking boxes for an organisation which he created”. Quote from mezzo soprano Alice Coote who was on stage with JEG last year.
Well, then, Alice Coote should speak to the MCO board of directors, whose opinions, for better or worse, are not “imagined.”
If ever an inaugural tour needed to end in Scunthorpe, it’s this one.
He should be in jail for assault.
So far the good people of Hamburg are staying away in their thousands….
https://shop.elbphilharmonie.de/en/seat-selection/39284/SelectSeats.aspx?msg=0&ret=57&bts=hp
I am interested to know how many of JEG’s former players are in his new ensembles. Does anyone know?
Stupid man. Just forge a new path if you must carry on. Musicians please don’t play for him in these circumstances.