After the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists parted ways with their founding conductor John Eliot Gardiner this summer, Gardiner has decided to form a new ensemble, The Constellation. The situation wouldn’t seem so peculiar if Gardiner hadn’t managed to insert himself into the 2024-2025 season at the Elbphilharmonie—with the same program, but one week earlier. On December 7, 2024, audiences will hear Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit à quatre voix and Bach’s Cantatas BWV 36 and BWV 110, conducted by Gardiner with his new ensemble. A week later, on December 14, the same works will be performed by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists as originally scheduled, but this time under the baton of Christophe Rousset, replacing the controversial conductor. Who to choose in case of a musical divorce?