Michel Garcin, Erato’s renowned artistic director from 1953 on, was the first to provide Sir John Eliot Gardiner a really productive canvas on which to express himself. They embarked on a fruitful period of collaboration in 1975 and in February 1976 recorded a first LP together: dedicated to Purcell and entitled “Music for Queen Mary”, it went on to achieve legendary status.

On this 33 rpm record of two odes composed by Purcell in homage to Queen Mary, the natural rhythmic and gently expressive qualities in the artistry of Gardiner beguile the listener, while in the Funeral Sentences he achieves a completely dazzling delicacy of balance and lightness of touch. Considered back in the 1970s as one of the best, the polyphony of the Monteverdi Choir too retains a serenely luminous clarity.

“The singing of the Monteverdi Choir is superlatively good and they have been well recorded. A splendid record.”

Gramophone