My association with Bärenrenreiter-Verlag stretches all the way back to 1957 when as a treble I sang in the Springhead Ring choir in a concert given in Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel, with works by William Byrd and Heinrich Schütz. My father Rolf was a close friend of its founder, Karl Vötterle, and he brought him to Cambridge in 1964 (or 5?) where I was then an undergraduate. Herr Vötterle courteously asked me which composer in my opinion was most in need of an Urtext edition at the time. Without hesitation I replied Hector Berlioz. I was then able to introduce him to my friend, the Berlioz expert, Hugh Macdonald – and the rest is history.

As a professional conductor over sixty years I have found Bärenreiter Urtext scores to be indispensable in terms of scholarship, and always beautifully edited and presented whether it be works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvořák or Elgar, all of which I have used in performances and recordings. Bärenreiter is the gold standard.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Conductor

Founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique