June 25, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

John Eliot Gardiner: The first interview

John Eliot Gardiner: The first interview

Henry Mance of the Financial Times finds a man with a road-map to Canossa.

Sample:

Remorse is essential to redemption. This is Gardiner’s first interview since the incident. He hits the right notes — mostly. “I needed to sort this out. It’s part of a pattern . . . I’m hugely grateful for this time away . . . I own the responsibility for what occurred . . . There is no excuse. Provocation yes, but not an excuse.” Can a musician’s inattentiveness, and objection to being shouted at, amount to provocation?

He points to “three, four types of therapy”, including “hugely helpful” cognitive behavioural therapy, and leadership coaching “from a specialist who does this with captains of industry, politicians, CEOs”. He’s done yoga, as he has since the 1990s, and mindfulness.

“I’ve changed. I feel I really have crossed a Rubicon in this last year . . . I’ve got techniques in place that will guard me against any . . . ” He interrupts himself. At a comeback concert in France this month, with another orchestra, “it was just such a relief to get back to music-making and to find that, even when the intensity in rehearsal is high, I was in control….”

Read on here.

The post John Eliot Gardiner: The first interview appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

The story of the boy who shouted ‘wow!

Next Article

New music mourns Wolgang Rihm

You might be interested in …

Pacific picks UK music director

Pacific picks UK music director

The Pacific Symphony has chosen Alexander Shelley to succeed Carl St Clair as music director, starting in the 2026-27 season. St Clair has led the orchestra for 35 years. Shelley, 45, is presently music director […]

Maestro move: Kent goes to Spain

Maestro move: Kent goes to Spain

The National Chorus and Orchestra of Spain have named Kent Nagano as their chief conductor and artistic director from September 2026. Nagano, 73, has been until now general music director in Hamburg. Kent Nagano comments: “The […]