Saturday, April 20, marks the 70th birthday of the English conductor and scholar Sir John Eliot Gardiner. To mark the occasion Gramophone has produced a digital magazine gathering together the reviews of 70 of his recordings – ranging from his Erato and EMI days, through his DG and Philips period, to the launch of his own label, SDG. You can read the magazine for free by clicking the following link: Sir John Eliot Gardiner digimag (you can also find details about subscribing to Gramophone's digital edition).

And to coincide with a 30-CD set, 'The John Eliot Gardiner Collection' from DG, Gramophone's editor-in-chief, James Jolly talked to the conductor about some of his key recordings, from Monteverdi to Kurt Weill; download the free podcast from iTunes.

The birthday celebrations continue next week in Brussels, Paris and London (Thursday, April 25) with concerts of music by Igor Stravinsky with the LSO: Apollon Musagète and Oedipus Rex (the latter to be recorded by LSO Live). And later in the year, Gardiner's book on Johann Sebastian Bach will be published.

There will also be an appearance at the 2013 BBC Proms on Friday, August 9, when he conducts his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in Bach's Easter Oratorio and Ascension Oratorio. 

Gardiner remains the musician to have received the most Gramophone Awards during his long recording career.