ORCHESTRE RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE ET ROMANTIQUE was founded by Sir John Eliot Gardiner to bring stylistic accuracy and verve to the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

One of the Orchestra's outstanding successes has undoubtedly been the series of performances of music by Berlioz. This series began with the Symphonie fantastique, performed and filmed in the former Conservatoire de la Musique in Paris where the very first performance took place in December 1830. In 1993 the Orchestra gave the first modern performances of the rediscovered Messe Solennelle, and ten years later the group performed L'enfance du Christ at the Proms and gave the first complete performances of Les Troyens at the Châtelet in Paris.

The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique has won plaudits for its complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies, which has been viewed by many as the most important Beethoven recording since the arrival of CD. It has made critically acclaimed recordings of all the Schumann symphonies as well as music by Verdi, Weber, and Mendelssohn. In 2003 the Orchestra took part in the making of the dramatization of the writing of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony for BBC television, and more recently, in October 2005, the Orchestra completed a highly successful European tour that included performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Mendelssohn.