Performer: Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Refined if sometimes raucous pleasures from Haydn and Mozart as the EBS continues its European tour. 

Gardiner's vivacious conducting of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia made this performance one to remember.

Under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zurich’s fine Tonhalle Orchestra, The Monteverdi Choir and soloists launch a sonorous holiday season with Hector Berlioz’s sacred oratorio L’Enfance du Christ.

The conductor and period instrument pioneer reflects on two of Berlioz' great operas. 

Read our wide-ranging interview about Monteverdi's operas, their cultural context, performing them today and why they remain as contemporary and fresh as when they were written four centuries ago.