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English Baroque Soloists

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The English Baroque Soloists are a chamber orchestra that plays on period instruments. The ensemble was founded in 1978 and grew out of the Monteverdi Orchestra, which the conductor John Eliot Gardiner had formed in 1968 to accompany his Monteverdi Choir. That orchestra at first played on modern instruments. At the end of the 1970s it switched to instruments from the period itself and adopted the name English Baroque Soloists. The repertoire runs from the early Baroque to the Classical period.

Music and breakthrough

The group soon began to record prolifically. Early recordings included Acis and Galatea (1978), Bach's motets (1981), Messiah and Water Music (1982), and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1984). The orchestra made the first recording of all of Mozart's piano concertos on period instruments, with Malcolm Bilson on the fortepiano, and recorded seven of Mozart's operas. It often performs with the Monteverdi Choir. In 1990 Gardiner also founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, for later repertoire with partly the same players. In 2023 the orchestra played at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla in Westminster Abbey.

Influence

The English Baroque Soloists belong to the movement that plays early music with the instruments and playing styles of its own time, which produces a lighter, sharper and more agile sound than a modern symphony orchestra. In this way the orchestra helped to give Baroque music a place of its own in the record shop.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Water Music in the recording by the English Baroque Soloists and notice the natural horns and the crisp, light strings. Can you hear how the rhythm of the dance is carried by the whole orchestra?

Discography

Studio albums

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