In the year 2000 the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists embarked upon a year-long pilgrimage in which we performed all of Bach’s sacred cantatas on the Sundays and feast days for which they were intended. It was a remarkable and rewarding experience for all who took part, as well as for the audiences who came to hear us in thirteen European countries and in New York. As both musical and spiritual pilgrims we became participants in a living process, a journey of discovery both physically and emotionally. It is therefore with a great sense of anticipation that the Monteverdi Choir looks ahead to participating in the Camino de Santiago in July & August 2004 and in so doing have the opportunity to rekindle and share the experience that remains so vivid from 2000.

Unlike our earlier Bach Pilgrimage, we see it as entirely possible, desirable and indeed significant that we should cover at least part of the route each day on foot. By so doing we wish to embrace fully the nature and spirit of the Camino.

From the musical point of view it seems to me important that there be a sense of structure and development to the project, so that it our journey is a musical as well as a physical and spiritual one. I believe that whilst this is not strictly a religious pilgrimage it should nonetheless identify strongly with its Christian roots. The idea of attempting to place the music in context has therefore been a source of inspiration in selecting the very best of Spanish a cappella music, to be sung in the beautiful churches along the route.

The programmes will celebrate the rich musical heritage left to us by Spanish and other European composers of the 16th & 17th centuries, also known as The Golden Age, including Victoria, Guerrero, Morales, Byrd, Tallis and L’Heritier.

This will be our 40th anniversary year, and I cannot envisage a more fitting way of celebrating this milestone than by undertaking a new musical pilgrimage, this time following the oldest and most famous of pilgrimage routes, el Camino de Santiago.

John Eliot Gardiner

For further information about the pilgrimage click here to see the article in July's GRAMOPHONE magazine.