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I mentioned this conductor a few weeks ago, conducting the Mozart c minor mass.

I've been listening to some of his other work- and I am extremely impressed with this conductor. I have his Bach b minor mass, St Matthew's passion, Christmas Cantatas, and Mozart Requiem.

A lot of these are on period instruments, which make the singing stand out even more and is absolutely beautifully clear while still having fire.

I have not heard his Beethoven symphonies yet, how do those stack up?

His Beethoven symphonies are among the best you can get. They're consistently faster than I'm used to, but Gardiner makes it work. The power and pulse in his interpretations is memorable -- especially in Nos. 3,5,7 & 9. (BTW, I'm also crazy about his B minor mass recording with the Monteverdi Choir.)

What about Karajan for the symphonies? I have him doing the Brahms symphonies with the Berlin Phil, and I absolutely love it. Is his last recording of the Beethoven symphonies on the same level as the Brahms?

Gardiner's Brahms requiem is likely the best on record - as is his recording of the St. Matthew Passion.

I also really like his Schumann symphonies, although my favourite is Szell's recording.

I've been collecting his choral recordings over recent months after I was impresed the Mozart Requiem. I'd also recommend getting the Beethoven Missa Solemnis and the rest of Bach's choral works. I bought a 9CD set on DG's label "Archiv" with the Christmas Oratorio, both Passions, and the Mass in B minor. It's great.

For some reason, though, I don't get the feeling he would be so good in Beethoven's symphonies.

I'm suprised to hear he does them faster than usual (I would have thought the opposite), so I might check them out some time. Does he use period instruments for those as well?

I am most definitely going to buy a lot of his recordings for Christmas. What I've heard so far has impressed me a great deal.

Yeah, I've heard good things about his Missa Solemnis, but I have yet to hear his symphonies.

Wow, I picked up his Verdi and Brahms requiems today.

I have not listened to his Brahms yet, as I've been listening to the Verdi.

Wow, what a recording! I really like his clear and powerful sound, sometimes you feel like the world itself is ending!

My christmas list will be full of Gardiner this year. Have others heard his Haydn masses or Handel recordings? I am going to guess they are of equal quality as the works mentioned.

Today I bought his recording of 2 of the Haydn masses. "Nelsonmesse" and "Theresienmesse".

I was not familiar with these particular masses before, so when I heard them, I was very surprised.

Haydn's orchestral writing in these works are absolutely beautiful, there is such color there in the orchestra part that I think it outdoes even some of the other well known masses.

That aside, the singing is wonderful of course, and even though Haydn's opera attempts didn't garner him too much fame, his vocal writing is masterful none the less. So elegant, and even in these masses- humorous. Not as deep as the Beethoven Missa Solemnis or the Mozart c minor, but still full of life and fantastic music.

This last 2 weeks or so I've bought about 10 CD's for Christmas, and funny enough, they are all religious works! (Masses or Requiems). And they are all conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, whom I've found to be absolutely fantastic in period instrument recordings.

I hope you have his Faure Requiem disc. If you don't, well, you've got to have it.

There's also a Christmas disc titled "Once as I remember". If you like choral singing then maybe you want to look for this (not sure if it's out of print already). The Byrd O Magnum Mysterium on that disc is...indescribable. But there's no orchestral playing here.

Gardiner's recordings have precision and technical accuracy without losing the joy and brilliance of Bach. There's nothing I can't stand more than academic Bach.

I question the constant use of period instruments (not in his Bach though), but he always pulls it off well.