Monteverdi and his constellation:  Podcast series

John Eliot Gardiner presents a new podcast series exploring Monteverdi’s role at the centre of seismic shifts and tumultuous advances in all the arts and sciences during the early 1600s, spearheaded by his contemporaries - Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, Shakespeare, Caravaggio and Rubens.

“Rewarding, knowledgeable and beautifully produced, with a glorious soundtrack.”
The Sunday Times

“Gardiner is the ideal guide with 70 years of experience.”
De Volkskrant

“With a great deal of carefully chosen musical illustrations and handpicked expert interviewees, John Eliot Gardiner guides listeners in a veritable investigation into the development of the modern mind at the start of the Baroque age… Listening to Gardiner talking, telling stories, it’s a pleasure!”
FranceMusique

“The series is a pioneering attempt to bring new and old together by making use of a media format of our time to convey a much older art.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Across eight episodes, with the help of specially recorded musical illustrations and a handpicked team of experts, Gardiner guides listeners through an in-depth investigation into the development of the early-modern mind.

All eight episodes in the series are now available - listen on our website by clicking here, or stream/download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Deezer.

The series at a glance
The first three decades of the 17th century saw intellectual ferment bubbling up across Europe, epitomised by a single generation of visionary artists and scientists, all born in the 1560s or ’70s. Galileo, Kepler, and Bacon spearheaded a scientific and philosophical revolution, while Shakespeare, Caravaggio and Rubens made radical innovations in the arts, as did a pioneer group of women creative artists and interpreters. This constellation of game-changers extended the map of human knowledge, overturned traditional views, and helped usher in the modern world. But why do historians routinely overlook their exact contemporary, the composer Claudio Monteverdi, whose contributions were no less ground-breaking? Bringing his work and its historical context to life with the help of specially recorded musical illustrations and a handpicked team of experts, Sir John Eliot Gardiner guides listeners through an in-depth investigation into the causes of this seismic shift and the development of the early-modern mind.