Performing Baroque Music

John Eliot Gardiner is one of the leading conductors in the active authentic performances movement in England, performing Baroque music but also extending his range into later repertoire. He first conducted at the age of 15, and after finishing school he studied at King's College, Cambridge. While still an undergraduate, he conducted the combined Oxford and Cambridge Singers on a 1964 tour of the Middle East and founded the Monteverdi Choir, which has consistently performed on his recordings since.

Alla Polacca is an invitation to delve into the world of sounds, scents and flavours of Poland and Polish folklore. What is presented here is a journey through Poland and Polish culture through the eyes of various European and Polish composers who lived, worked or traveled to Poland in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and whose compositions present elements of the Polish style.

Arcangelo Corelliis one of the great composers of the Baroque era, a trailblazer who forever changed the relationship between soloist and orchestra, and did much to establish the violin as the star of the orchestra. He is considered the ‘father’ of the concerto grosso – apiece for several soloists accompanied by an orchestra – and his seminal Opus 6 volume became the benchmark for his contemporaries, including Handel, Vivaldi and Geminiani.