Soli Deo Gloria (SDG)
SDG was created in 2005 as the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras’ own record label, and has released over 50 critically-acclaimed recordings.
Its initial project was the release over 50 recordings made in 2000 by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists during the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. The very first release in this series won Record of the Year at the Gramophone Awards, and all subsequent releases have won international acclaim.
In 2006 the label made headlines with a CD of two Mozart symphonies, recorded live during a concert at London’s Cadogan Hall and released at the end of the evening. Another special recording project, ‘Pilgrimage to Santiago’ followed an acclaimed concert tour along the route to Compostela and received as much praise as the concerts themselves.
Autumn 2007 saw the first recordings with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Salle Pleyel in Paris during the Brahms and his Antecedents concert cycle. Four Brahms Symphonies albums have now been released, with the last one in this series, Ein Deutsches Requiem, coming out in 2012.
2010 marked the completion of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage releases. Since then, the label has issued several live and studio recordings, including J.S.Bach’s Motets, St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, and Magnificat, music by Johann Christoph Bach, Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and Handel’s Semele.
As the MCO’s dedicated label, SDG will continue to record the ensembles’ adventurous projects in the tradition started with the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, both with studio recordings, and recordings of live concerts that capture as much of the atmosphere as possible for listeners to enjoy.
SDG will release two new albums in 2025:
The first, recorded live in concert in October 2024, celebrates the Monteverdi Choir’s 60th birthday and the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth with an album that combines his celebrated a cappella motets with the sacred motets of Carlo Gesualdo (1566 – 1613), conducted by Jonathan Sells.
The second will be recorded in December 2024, and marks the debut of celebrated French conductor Christophe Rousset with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. The album ‘Baroque Christmas’ featuring the music of Charpentier includes the Messe de Minuit with its beguiling blend of sacred music and French folk carols.
Reviews
“Rampant with glorious music… the musical pleasures hardly cease … The loyal and committed Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists shine as ever.”
The Guardian – Fiona Maddocks (Handel's Semele)
“Orchestrally, the English Baroque Soloists play with their usual incision… The players are equally finely poised in supporting and colouring the arias and recitatives.”
Music-Web International – Jonathan Woolf (Handel's Semele)
The Monteverdi Choir hasn’t aged a bit and is bursting with vocal health. Its precision, flexibility and impeccable ductility are still admirable.
ResMusica (Spain) – Matthew Roc (Handel's Semele)
Recent Releases
In Spring 2019, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists presented a critically-acclaimed European tour of Handel’s opera ‘Semele’, including Alexandra Palace Theatre in London, where this live recording took place.
A glamorous team of young soloists joins the Monteverdi ensembles to bring the story of Semele to life, including celebrated English soprano Louise Alder, who takes on the title role, with the young tenor Hugo Hymas portraying the amorous Jupiter.
Monteverdi’s great opera is a celebration of unwavering devotion, conveyed in some of the composer’s most poignant, heart-breaking music.
An exemplary cast of world-class singers performs alongside the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in this live recording from The National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Poland – part of their critically acclaimed Monteverdi 450 tour in 2017.
The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique perform Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major D.485 and Brahms’s Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16 – recorded live in concert at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
In Serenade No.2 a 20-year-old Brahms chooses to omit violins, creating an unusually dark sound, while the lively style of Schubert’s Symphony No.5 seems to reflect the composer’s youthful exuberance.