Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Brahms symphonies

The 'Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra' is a symphony orchestra of international renown, whose character has been shaped by several generations of musicians, longstanding collaboration with each of the six chief conductors, and the unique acoustic properties of the Concertgebouw’s main hall.

The Orchestra has gained its unique international position with its ‘velvet’ strings, ‘golden’ brass and the exceptional and personal timbre of the woodwinds. The musicians are the guardians of the playing culture that gives the Orchestra its unique sound and flexibility. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra consists of 120 virtuosos who perform together at the highest level.

During the fifty years of Willem Mengelberg’s reign, a wide variety of composers such as Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra several times. Celebrities such as Béla Bartók, Sergey Rachmaninoff and Sergey Prokofiev performed their own works as soloists. This crucial bond with contemporary composers was continued with Bruno Maderna, Peter Schat, Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Nono and John Adams, and is still RCO policy.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the most versatile conductors of our time. Acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival, he is the founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Alongside the activities with his own ensembles, John Eliot Gardiner appears regularly as guest conductor with the most important European symphony orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras and the London Symphony Orchestra.
The extent of John Eliot Gardiner’s repertoire is illustrated in over 250 recordings made for major European record companies (principally Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Classics), which have received numerous international awards. Over the years Gardiner has won more Gramophone awards than any other artist. Recordings include the six late masses by Haydn as well as the Santiago a Cappella CD, released on Emarcy to coincide with his Santiago Pilgrimage tour in summer 2004. Most recently he has released recordings of the Bach Cantatas from the Bach Pilgrimage tour of 2000, on his own record label Soli Deo Gloria. The first release was awarded Gramophone Record of the year in 2005.
In 1987 John Eliot Gardiner received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon, and in 1996 he was nominated Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992 he became an Honorary Fellow of both King's College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music. He received a knighthood in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours List.