Soli Deo Gloria is proud to release the last instalment of its successful Brahms Symphony series which sees John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique explore the music of Johannes Brahms. This album is a celebration of the Fourth Symphony and the various pieces that contributed to its making.

Soli Deo Gloria is proud to release the third instalment in the successful Brahms Symphony series which sees John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique explore the music of Johannes Brahms.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir, Choeur du Théâtre du Châtelet and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique in a landmark recording of Berlioz's towering opera. A tragic tale of love and fate, war and peace and the intertwined destinies of two cities, the opera is based on Virgil's imperial vision of the founding myth of Rome. The American tenor Gregory Kunde as Aeneas and the Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci lead an international cast in this stunning production.

Gardiner here follows up his previous Philips Berlioz recordings with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique – the Symphonie fantastique (6/93) and the rediscovered Messe solennelle (4/94) – with a searingly dramatic account of the later programme symphony, Harold in Italy. If anything this performance is even more biting in its impact, with textures transparent yet with plenty of weight, not least in the heavy brass. In a commentary on Berlioz and the conductor – shown recently on television – Gardiner puts as the first two of the conductor’s functions “to set the emotional temperature of the piece” and “to indicate the kaleidoscopic changes of mood that so characterize the music of Berlioz”.

When the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris re-opened after a period of extensive refurbishment, the first two productions mounted in the theatre were Gluck’s Alceste and Orphée et Eurydice. Both operas were sung in their French versions and were mounted and designed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. This was the first time Wilson and Gardiner had collaborated and their individual credentials combined to produce an exceptional result.