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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | JS Bach: St John Passion
This is the premiere recording J.S. Bach’s John Passion heard for the first time within its original liturgical context. This recording marks the return of Dunedin Consort’s star studded cast including, Nicholas Mulroy, Matthew Brook, Robert Davies, Joanne Lunn and Clare Wilkinson. Director John Butt has given listeners an interpretation that will provide a refreshing outlook on this masterpiece and will show the John Passion in a completely new light. The Consort recreate the context of a passion performance during Bach’s time at Leipzig; the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir (directed by James Grossmith) and a congregational choir of amateur singers perform motets and chorales from an original Leipzig hymn book and John Butt takes centre stage to perform organ preludes on the Collins organ at Greyfriar’s Kirk in Edinburgh, where the recording took place. 'No performance could better justify small-scale Bach than this convincing marriage of scholarship and inspiration.’ BBC Music Magazine (on J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor) ‘The playing and the singing is outstanding, undoubtedly enhanced by John Butt's scholarly and revelatory handling of the score.’ The Observer (on J.S. Bach: Matthew Passion) The Dunedin Consort has established a reputation as the finest single-part period performance choir currently performing, under the direction of prize-winning Bach specialist John Butt O.B.E. The multi-award-winning Dunedin Consort has won praise for the natural style of its soloists and renown for the virtuosity of its singers. Since receiving a Gramophone Award in 2007, Dunedin Consort has continued to receive accolades: Esther was voted one of the ‘Top 10 Classical Albums of 2012’ by The Times, 2011 saw them included in Gramophone’s ‘Twenty Greatest Choirs’ list and its recording of Bach’s Matthew Passion was named Building A Library: First Choice by BBC Radio 3 - CD Review. “naturalness and emotional honesty are what emerge from this tight-knit and perfectly paced ensemble Passion, in which Bach's complex succession of recitatives, arias, choruses and chorales has surely seldom sounded so convincingly of a piece...[the singers] come across as a gathering of real people rather than a disembodied chorus. The fact that you can sometimes recognise a soloist's voice within the mix only adds to the impression of reality.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 “The artists themselves bring pleasure, unless you’re allergic to the idiosyncratic, rather peevish tone of the tenor Nicholas Mulroy...Would that there were more chances to hear the soprano Joanne Lunn, clear as a bell, daisy-fresh. Around and about, Matthew Brook’s Jesus, the Dunedin Consort and their director John Butt attack the music with customary verve. Intimacy, too: the Consort choir numbers eight” The Times, 15th March 2013 *** “a dramatic, exactingly nuanced, profoundly considered reading, compelling in its integrity and text-driven immediacy...Mulroy's firmly-contoured Evangelist balances the musical and narrative imperatives of the recitatives with judicious sensitivity...Brooks's Christus stands up to the crowd with a dignified yet firm resolve and hallowed charisma..Butt's contextualising demands to be heard: it's nothing short of a revelation” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 ***** “a really fine, taut, mainly single-voice account of Bach's music – led by Nicholas Mulroy's powerful Evangelist and Matthew Brook's affecting Christ – which somehow acquires new power for emerging from its spartan surroundings. John Butt's research and direction are an object lesson in musical study brought to compelling life.” The Observer, 24th March 2013 “Not only is this an exceptionally fine small-scale performance and recording with scholarly but readable notes, it attempts to bring us closer to the way in which the original listeners experienced the passion on Good Friday” MusicWeb International, March 2013 “The recording is a significant landmark in authentic Bach performance, but at the same time it's refreshingly relaxed around the edges (Butt doesn't pretend to have recreated the exact 1724 service, because there's no way of knowing what that was)” The Herald (Glasgow), March 2013 “the choral singing is wonderfully pure, buoyant and transparent...I found [the add-ons] stimulating and musically all-of-a-piece.” Financial Times, March 2013 “Linn offers a fascinating extra dimension.” Sunday Times, 31st March 2013  BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - April 2013 |
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| |  | First Reconstructable Version (Cannons), 1720
The Dunedin Consort’s highly anticipated new recording of ‘Esther - First Reconstructable Version (Cannons), 1720’ is the third recording in its hugely successful Handel series. The Consort have set the bar high for this Handel performance with a Gramophone Award in 2007 for ‘Messiah’ and a BBC Radio 3 ‘Building a Library’ First Choice accolade for ‘Acis and Galatea’. For Esther, director John Butt has reunited his award-winning team of soloists (Susan Hamilton - Esther; Nicholas Mulroy - Mordecai; Matthew Brook - Haman; Thomas Hobbs - 1st Israelite) plus well-known guest soloists Robin Blaze – Priest, James Gilchrist – Habdonah / Assuerus and Electra Lochhead - Israelite Boy. The Dunedin Consort has established a reputation as the finest single-part period performance choir currently performing. In 2011 Gramophone named the Dunedin Consort the 11th Greatest Choir in recognition of its ‘triple focus upon artistic revitalisation of over-familiar great works, meticulous musicological enquiry and the audiophile integrity of Linn Records' production values.’ The multi-award-winning Dunedin Consort has won praise for the natural style of its soloists (‘an authoritative bass and a superb contralto’ The Guardian) and renown for the virtuosity of its singers. The Dunedin Consort has performed at music festivals in Scotland - including the Edinburgh International Festival and broadcasts frequently on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Scotland. “Butt's direction combines spontaneous freshness with a care for expressive phrasing and precise colouring. The 11-strong chorus - the solo cast plus reinforcement - is vital incisive, packing a fair punch even in the ceremonial final chorus.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012 “the scholarship is only a means to an end, and is never allowed to get in the way of the wonderfully crafted music making. Textures are lean – 11 singers, including the soloists, 20 instrumentalists – but wonderfully precise, and the solo contributions, with soprano Susan Hamilton as Esther, are models of stylishness.” The Guardian, 17th May 2012 **** “Butt's consort of soloists do this great music proud, sounding larger than their number would suggest...I'll return to this recording for the winning drive, dramatic conception and expressive phrasing of Butt's direction, his crack Baroque orchestra and his exceptional male cast” International Record Review, June 2012 “Paradoxically, a two-voices-to-a-part chorus achieves more immediacy than a larger choir, coupled with a stylish and delightfully intimate band. Yet again, Butt demonstrates that less can be more.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Breitkopf Edition, edited by J. Rifkin
“The ensemble is nigh perfect… the freshness with which they sing radiates joy throughout the entire score." Classic FM Magazine "The Dunedin Consort's exemplary singers produce virtuoso choruses that are theatrically charged, splendidly poised and exquisitely blended.” Gramophone The Dunedin Consort’s recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor revisits the spectacular individual virtuosity that made the Messiah recording so successful. This is the premiere recording of the work in the new Breitkopf edition, edited by Joshua Rifkin, a leading thinker in authentic period performance, who fully endorses John Butt’s interpretation. Bach’s Mass capitalizes on the very essence of the group’s skills: skilled virtuosic choral performance coupled with outstanding, characterful solo singing. Bach’s Mass in B Minor is undoubtedly his most spectacular choral work and the Dunedin Consort’s single-voice performance enables a level of clarity and expression that is not traditionally a feature of modern choral performance. This recording features several soloists from the acclaimed recording of Bach’s Matthew Passion, which was named the BBC Music Magazine’s Benchmark. “[The] constantly changing texture makes us listen afresh to the beauty of Bach's astonishing vocal writing. It's a joy to hear the principal singers...working together as a chorus, moving like a precision machine, each line clear and uncluttered under John Butt's meticulous direction. A definitive recording.” The Observer, 23rd May 2010 “Butt opts for 10 solo voices, his liner notes justifying when lines should be sung by two voices and when by just the one...His performance is powerful and beautifully shaped” Sunday Times, 20th June 2010 *** “The Dunedin Consort's premiere recording of Joshua Rifkin's scholarly edition of Bach's B-minor Mass has many attractive features: the emphatic "k" that launches the first Kyrie (the orchestra sounding on the vowel), closely dovetailed counterpoint...and a calm but purposeful sense of narrative.” The Independent, 13th June 2010 “Surely no other recording of Bach’s B Minor Mass bounces along with such joy as this...Lots of clarity, too, partly thanks to the slimmed-down forces, featuring only ten voices ...no clouds cover the instrumental finesse in an interpretation that eschews weighty grandeur for light and smiling exultation.” The Times, 12th June 2010 **** “...the Dunedin Consort and Players are never perfunctory or merely dogmatic...Butt's insightful direction and scholarship, integrated with the Dundin's extremely accomplished instrumental playing and consort singing, amount to an enthralling and revelatory collective interpretation” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 “Butt's players generate a lively sense of forward motion...No performance could better justify small-scale Bach than this convincing marriage of scholarship and inspiration.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ***** “It's a performance full of air and lightness; the instrumental textures have a springing, dancing vitality, the voices are perfectly focused, and agile...overall this is a fascinating and hugely rewarding account of one of the imperishable masterpieces of the western musical tradition.” The Guardian, 22nd July 2010 **** “Butt’s direction is generally sound, sometimes inspired. The initial Kyrie deftly combines a measured, serious tread with vital buoyancy and momentum; the lively Cum Sancto Spiritu has terrific flair...The chief benefits of the one-to-a-part choir are agility and clarity, particularly welcome in the fiendishly complex fugues.” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 26th May 2010 | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Original Cannons Performing Version 1718
Acis and Galatea is the Dunedin Consort's second Handel recording and follows their hugely successful 1742 version of Messiah, which earned the group a Classic FM Gramophone Award for "Best Baroque Vocal Album" in 2007 and a Midem Award in 2008. The Dunedin Consort continues its critically acclaimed practice of recording unusual but authentic recording versions of well-known works; Acis and Galatea is no exception. The Consort has recorded the Original Cannons Performing Version from 1718. There are notable differences in the Cannons version including changes in instrumentation and vocal scoring (there is no alto line) made by Handel to suit the forces at Cannons. This includes one-to-a-part choruses, in a similar manner to the choruses in the Consort’s Matthew Passion recording. Director John Butt chose this version because of the small forces involved (which was one of the aspects that made Messiah so distinctive) and although there have been 'first versions' of Acis recorded before, Butt felt that there were certain aspects of the original version that had not yet been sufficiently realised. Acis and Galatea is a beautiful pastoral entertainment, Handel's first dramatic work in English, with a simple yet highly emotional story that encompasses the extremes of love and tragedy. In 2007, the Dunedin Consort’s tenth anniversary year, the group reached a new level of critical acclaim, culminating in the Classic FM Gramophone Award for Messiah in the Baroque Vocal category. This is the only such award presented to a Scottish group in recent years (and the first to an ensemble that is not a Scottish National Company or BBC orchestra) and now gives the Dunedin Consort a truly international reputation. “A genuine sparkle which lifts Handel's music above the ordinary, and a fresh angle for just about every moment.” The Scotsman “…the performance is utterly magical. The five singers and the band are beautifully in proportion with each other, an Linn's sound recording is stunningly good.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2009 “The chief strength of this account lied in the excellent instrumental playing (the recorders that form the 'warbling choir' addressed in Galatea's first aria are sheer magic)…” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 *** “…this near-perfect ensemble effort is a delightful representation of Handel's first English masterpiece. Butt flawlessly judges the transition into pastoral tragedy and magical transformation…” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 “Handel's Acis and Galatea has been recorded often, but the original version written for smallscale performance by only five singers (soprano, three tenors and bass) and a small band at Cannons in 1718 has almost never been properly revived. This beggars belief because the Cannons version text makes more dramatic sense and the musical scale of it is charming. It is certainly among Handel's most perfect creations.
Thankfully, John Butt has researched the performing conditions and text of the Cannons Acis.
The philological aspects of the Dunedin Consort & Players' new recording are impeccable, and, better still, the performance is utterly magical.
The Sinfonia brims with unforced personality, after which the pastoral chorus 'O the pleasure of the plains' is relaxed, with the oboes given enough space to weave their imitative lines clearly. The five singers and the band are beautifully in proportion with each other, and Linn's sound recording is stunningly good. Susan Hamilton's light, articulate soprano is preferable to an operatic voice in the role of Galatea.
Nicholas Mulroy's Acis is resonant and suave, combining muscularity with elegance. The madrigal-like beauty of 'Wretched lovers' is breathtaking: the blend and understanding between the five singers is deeply satisfying, and the menacing music to convey the arrival of Polyphemus is astutely integrated. Matthew Brook's Polyphemus is extrovert, powerful and amusing, but also arouses pity and tenderness from the listener in 'I rage, I melt, I burn'. The dialogue between the hapless would-be seducer and the disgusted Galatea is superbly enacted by Brook and Hamilton. The roles of Damon and Coridon are admirably sung by Nicholas Hurndall Smith and Thomas Hobbs.
Butt's direction from the harpsichord is a role model of taste and style, and he insightfully conveys the elusive changing tone of the story from pastoral romp into personal tragedy. Previous versions of merit still possess enduring appeal, but it seems to me that the Dunedins have transformed the way in which we can understand and enjoy Handel's lovely early English masterpiece.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “a wonderfully intimate reading, which bounces along with the spring and precision of a chamber performance. There is some world-class singing here: Susan Hamilton portrays Galatea with startling clarity and sincerity; Nicholas Mulroy makes an affecting Acis and the tremendous Matthew Brook combines power and pathos as Polyphemus.” The Guardian, 9th November 2008 | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | (Dublin version, 1742)
This is the first recording to seriously explore the version and performing forces that Handel used for his legendary Dublin première.The research was carried out by director and lecturer John Butt and the performance recreated by the acclaimed Scottish choral group the Dunedin Consort, with soloists taken from within the choir. The Dublin version of The Messiah is unique in several important ways and the resultant Linn recording signifies an exciting and historically considered representation as enjoyed by the Dublin audience of 1742.The challenge in this recording was to try and recapture something of the freshness of the first public performances, imagining what it was like to hear the work for the very first time, when many moments must have been quite unexpected. “... the freshest, most natural, revelatory and transparently joyful Messiah I have heard for a very long time” Gramophone Magazine, December 2006 “The Dunedin Consort's recording of Handel's Messiah strips the work back to how it was performed at its first outing in Dublin. Even less ornate than other 'authentic' performances, it is innately spiritual, and deeply satisfying.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 “For an infinitely rewarding fresh look at Handel's most familiar music, look no further than the Dunedin Consort's performance of Handel's first version, premiered at Dublin in 1742. Bizarrely under-represented in concert and on disc, the Dublin score contains some fascinating music that Handel never reused, such as the substantial chorus 'Break forth into joy'. The exuberant direction by harpsichordist John Butt is meticulously stylish and utterly devoid of crassly pretentious egotism. The playing is unerringly spontaneous and dramatically integrated with singers who illustrate profound appreciation of text.
Clare Wilkinson's 'He was despised' is most moving, Susan Hamilton effortlessly skips through a delicious 'Rejoice greatly', and bass Matthew Brook sings as if his life depends on it.
Butt bravely resolves to use the same forces Handel had at his disposal in Dublin, which means that the entire oratorio is sung by a dozen singers (with all soloists required to participate in the choruses, as Handel would have expected).
Where this approach might risk worthy dull solos churned out by stalwart choir members, the Dunedin Consort's exemplary singers produce virtuoso choruses that are theatrically charged, splendidly poised and exquisitely blended. Old warhorses 'For unto us a child is born' and 'Surely he hath borne our griefs' are delightfully inspiring. Butt and the Dunedin Consort marry astute scholarship to sincere artistic expression and the result is comfortably the freshest, most natural, revelatory and transparently joyful Messiah to have appeared for a very long time. (It's also available as a download at numerous different bit-rates.)” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | In The Beginning
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| |  | The People's Mass
The Dunedin Consort has adopted a fresh approach to the Latin Mass by commissioning a different composer to write each movement. Six contemporary Scottish-based composers come together in this new Mass setting whose most striking aspect is its remarkable homogeneity, given the varied background of the six composers. The blending of six-part a cappella voices together with solo songs, harp accompaniment and an upper voice choir for the plainsong sections also gives the work an added dimension of space within its harmonic framework. Polychoral pieces interweave with harp-accompanied songs in a spiritual work that achieves unity in diversity, designed to stimulate and inspire the listener’s very soul. Six contemporary Scottish-based composers come together in this new Mass setting performed by the Dunedin Consort. Polychoral pieces interweave with harp-accompanied songs in a spiritual work that achieves unity in diversity, designed to stimulate and inspire the listener’s inner soul. “The singing is excellent” Choir & Organ | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Final performing version, c. 1742
“One-to-a-part Bach infiltrated the St Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh in 2002. I described him then as 'provocative and compelling', and John Butt is no less so. Of his eight remarkable singers (plus two unison sopranos for the opening chorus' crowning chorale) several are barely out of college, but they match spine-tingling tone with astonishing maturity.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 ***** “From the word go, the Dunedin Consort draws you in. The instruments are perfectly balanced, the playing is soulful, there are subtle swells, and the lilting tempo strikes a happy medium between pace and sobriety.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 7th March 2008 “Having swept the board with their Awardwinning Messiah, John Butt and the Dunedin Consort and Players proceed headlong into the summa of dramatic religious masterpieces. One imagines, however, that this highly singular approach has been marinating in Butt's mind for years. This is a reading (the first to draw on the 1742 performing version with its re-allocation of continuo instruments) where scholarly and musical penetration is indivisible in the strength of the approach and the unswerving commitment of the 'players'.
And 'players' they are – except that Butt argues here for a new dramatic understanding of the Matthew (note the curious de-sanctification) where the work challenges the notion of 'parts' in an opera, towards various 'voices' which reflect the listener's absorption of the conflicting positions – both biographical and emotional – of the main protagonists and the most far-flung thresholds of human experience.
This is achieved using the main singers, from the eight principal voices, in different contexts. Hence, as Butt explains in his illuminating note, the Evangelist may rally us to lament as an allegorical 'Daughter of Zion' in the opening chorus before darting in and out of the story in recitatives, chorus, aria and chorales, mixing up the past and present, first person and third person, in a web of intense and coherent narrative and reflection.
All of this presupposes a one-to-a-part troupe where all these subtle character combinations can be perceived. With such a spectacularly clear and balanced sound from Philip Hobbs, these ambitious perspectives are powerfully realised; refreshingly, too, Bach's 'novel in sound' is presented in a small inter-reliant ensemble without the need for tiresome dog- matic mantras on historical rectitude. Indeed, often so entwined are the textures that singers' vowels are shadowed by instruments in a closeknit rapport of exceptional immediacy.
For those steeped in both recent and old schools, this performance will resonate with both, though it is not always so easy to summarise how. The thread of intensity is achieved largely by the focus and roundness of the Dunedin Consort's palette, the thrusting legatos (when called for) and the welcome presence of a strong, directed bass-line.
Such responses are relatively superficial because Butt's St Matthew is truly original in spheres resonating beyond established parameters.
As his story-teller, Nicholas Mulroy brings his own striking naturalness of delivery, clarity of diction and honesty. At the start of Part 2, especially, there are moments of disarming reportage, such as the encounter with the High Priest where the Evangelist conveys a sickened response to Christ's humiliation and a gutting catch in his voice at the emptiness of Peter's denial. Yet it is Mulroy's identification with the outstanding Christus of Matthew Brook which raises the stakes in this performance. The timing between the two and the realism of the musical choreography is both remarkably patient and animated.
The only downside of a single-part St Matthew is that, while the singers – in Butt's words – 'become familiar to us as the piece progresses', this only works to advantage if they have the tonal and musical range to sustain such an extended and exposed vision. For all the stylistic nuancing and deft ensemble work of the sopranos, their arias rarely lift themselves beyond the generic. 'Ich will dir' sounds unsure and snatched and 'So ist mein Jesus gefangen' fails to demarcate the almost cosmic mystery ('moon and light have set in their anguish') alongside the admirable discipline of the crowd's graphic interjections.
No recorded St Matthew Passion comes without its blemishes but few parade such a compellingly fresh and raw realism, one so strongly identifiable by its wilful clarity of intent that it asks new questions about what this great work can say to us.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “The thread of intensity is achieved largely by the focus and roundness of the Dunedin Consort's palette, the thrusting legatos (when called for) and the welcome presence of a strong, directed bass-line. No recorded St Matthew Passion…comes without its blemishes but few parade such a compellingly fresh and raw realism.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008 “Crisp singing and clear diction is matched by outstanding technical ability by the singers” Sunday Herald BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song Choice - April 2008 |
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