John Eliot Gardiner an early-music specialist? “The hell with that label,” says the controversial founder of the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. Both groups will debut in Chicago this week, under Gardiner’s direction, as part of the choir’s silver jubilee tour.
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“I’ve never considered myself as an early-music freak,” says Gardiner, “and I don’t live on bean sprouts and yogurt, either. And believe it or not, I don’t have a beard and I don’t wear sandals. There’s a terrible bunch of phoniness attached to the whole thing. It’s become a cult. The good side is that it has opened the door to a whole lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard of Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell, Rameau, and so on. The bad side is that it has an image which is associated with a certain philosophy on life, a certain political style, a sociological stance. It irritates me very much to be lumped together with that stereotype because I’ve always conducted a very wide repertoire, from the 16th to the 20th century, and in no sense do I consider myself an exclusive specialist at all.” Still, the early-music label sticks, although Gardiner is music director of a French opera house and often conducts later repertoire on modern instruments.
“The challenge was to see if one could try and create an essentially earthy music–as Monteverdi’s music was–rooted to human and terrestrial experience with an incredibly direct and overt passion that is typical of Italian and Mediterranean music in general. That music was being performed in all beiges and grays: wishy-washy colors. What I was looking for was primary colors: strong and hot reds, blues, and yellows, as it were, nothing blurred at all. That’s a characteristic of Italian language, after all. I wanted to see if one could produce those colors and sounds with English singers, rather than the dull sound we were all so used to.”
The Monteverdi Choir is stopping in Chicago Monday, February 20, at 8 PM at Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan, under the sponsorship of Chamber Music Chicago. It will be accompanied by the English Baroque Soloists for a complete performance of the Handel oratorio based on the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel in Egypt. Call 242-6237 for ticket information. Before the concert, John Eliot Gardiner will appear in the Orchestra Hall ballroom to give a discussion on the reasons for performing baroque music on period instruments. Boxed suppers and wine and coffee will be provided. Tickets are $12.50, $9.50 for those attending the concert, and are available as well at 242-6237.
