John Eliot Gardiner

"Within a decade of taking up his post as Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723, Bach was becoming ever more frustrated with the Saxon city's civic politics. Never one to compromise, he had clashed with the authorities almost from the word go. In August 1730 complaints that he had been neglecting his duties led him to submit a 'brief but highly necessary draft of a well-appointed church music' to the Leipzig council. Inter alia, he pointed out that he did...

Period-drama depiction of the private, first performance of Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony at the Lobkowitz Palace in 1805, the momentous musical event that prompted composer Joseph Haydn to remark "Everything is different from today."