Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | John Butt

Leipzig 300: Dunedin Consort explores the Thomaskantor shortlist

By David Smythe, 07 February 2024

The Dunedin Consort explores the 1723 Thomaskantor shortlist: Georg Philipp Telemann, Christoph Graupner and Johann Sebastian Bach in a programme directed by John Butt.

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Perth

07 Feb 2024

Leipzig 300: Dunedin Consort explores the Thomaskantor shortlist

By David Smythe

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Glasgow

An especially memorable Messiah from the Dunedin Consort in Glasgow

By David Smythe, 14 December 2022

John Butt directs the Dunedin Consort and a top team of soloists in St Mary's Cathedral for Handel's seasonal favourite.

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Glasgow

14 Dec 2022

An especially memorable Messiah from the Dunedin Consort

By David Smythe

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Pure authenticity and enjoyment in Acis and Galatea from the Dunedin Consort

By David Smythe, 22 June 2022

Rachel Redmond is a sweet voiced Galatea in the Dunedin Consort's performance of the Cannons version of Acis and Galatea in Perth.

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Perth

22 Jun 2022

Authenticity and enjoyment in Dunedin Consort's Acis and Galatea

By David Smythe

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Trials of love told vividly by the Dunedin Consort in Edinburgh

By David Smythe, 25 February 2022

John Butt and the Dunedin Consort are joined by Anna Dennis and Matthew Brook in “Trials of Love”, two Baroque cantatas illustrating the perils of infatuated love from Scarlatti and Handel.

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Edinburgh

25 Feb 2022

Trials of love told vividly by the Dunedin Consort in Edinburgh

By David Smythe

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Good tidings of great joy from the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall

By Benjamin Poore, 18 December 2021

Handel's Christmas classic gets a fresh lick of paint from John Butt and colleagues.

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London

18 Dec 2021

Good tidings of great joy from the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall

By Benjamin Poore

Purcell and beyond: Errollyn Wallen’s dramatic new opera Dido’s Ghost

By David Smythe, 06 June 2021

A dramatic new opera from Errollyn Wallen, with the Dunedin Consort, chorus and a strong cast including Isabelle Peters, Matthew Brook, Nardus Williams and Allison Cook.

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London

06 Jun 2021

Purcell and beyond: Errollyn Wallen’s dramatic new Dido’s Ghost

By David Smythe

Purcell “Songes & Ayres” from the Lammermuir Festival

By Linda Holt, 17 September 2020

Scotland's Dunedin Consort offers a radiant program of Purcell and his peers.

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Haddington

17 Sep 2020

Purcell “Songes & Ayres” from the Lammermuir Festival

By Linda Holt

Prom 71: Bach Night with a modern twist

By Nahoko Gotoh, 11 September 2019

During Henry Wood’s Prom years, Wednesday was Bach Night. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Proms revived this tradition in the final week with a couple of modern twists.

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London

11 Sep 2019

Prom 71: Bach Night with a modern twist

By Nahoko Gotoh

A flash of Bachian colour to see out the EIF’s Queen’s Hall season

By Simon Thompson, 24 August 2019

John Butt’s musicians show that Bach’s secular cantatas have just as much to offer as the sacred.

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Edinburgh

24 Aug 2019

A flash of Bachian colour to see out the EIF’s Queen’s Hall season

By Simon Thompson

Reservoir Dogs of the harpsichord: EIF's series of Bach's keyboard concertos goes out with a bang

By Simon Thompson, 22 August 2019

Ares, Butt, Egarr and Foster play brilliantly, but they're at their best when there's no orchestra.

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Edinburgh

22 Aug 2019

Reservoir Dogs: EIF's Bach's series goes out with a bang

By Simon Thompson

A disappointing Mass in B minor from the BBCSO

By Stephen Pritchard, 02 February 2019

Even Baroque specialist John Butt could not persuade the BBC Symphony Chorus to sing in tune

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London

02 Feb 2019

A disappointing Mass in B minor from the BBCSO

By Stephen Pritchard

Halle

Samson is a great treat at the Halle Handel Festival

By Sandra Bowdler, 27 May 2018

John Butt’s revisitation of the Handel oratorio Samson at the Halle Handel Festival displayed this treasured work in an illuminating and satisfying light.

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Halle

27 May 2018

Samson is a great treat at the Halle Handel Festival

By Sandra Bowdler

An uplifting and joyous Christmas Oratorio from the Dunedin Consort

By David Smythe, 15 December 2017

Dunedin Consort’s band of virtuosi players, four Early music specialist soloists and just four ripieno singers gave a nimble and exquisitely focussed performance of the Christmas Oratorio simply bursting with enjoyment.

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Perth

15 Dec 2017

A joyous Christmas Oratorio from the Dunedin Consort

By David Smythe

Leipzig

Bach to basics at Bachfest Leipzig

By Sam Johnstone, 11 June 2017

Three concerts over one day at the opening weekend of Bachfest Leipzig combined Bach’s music with that of composers from Rachmaninov to Sibelius, but nothing matches the unrivalled bliss of Bach’s own music performed with total conviction.

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Leipzig

11 Jun 2017

Bach to basics at Bachfest Leipzig

By Sam Johnstone

Oslo

An almost all-Mozart programme closes the Oslo Church Music Festival

By Aksel Tollåli, 26 March 2017

John Butt and the Dunedin Consort closed the Oslo Church Music Festival with fine performances of CPE Bach and Mozart, even though the concert didn't prove quite as innovative as advertised.

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Oslo

26 Mar 2017

Mozart closes the Oslo Church Music Festival

By Aksel Tollåli

All the pleasures: Dunedin Consort honours St Cecilia's Day at Wigmore Hall

By Roy Westbrook, 22 November 2016

The Dunedins venture south to show London how to play and sing Purcell.

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London

22 Nov 2016

All the pleasures: Dunedin Consort honours St Cecilia

By Roy Westbrook

Ravishing Bach at St John’s with the OAE

By David Truslove, 10 March 2016

Bach: Sacred and Secular became the focus for a creative partnership between Bach scholar John Butt and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

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London

10 Mar 2016

Ravishing Bach at St John’s with the OAE

By David Truslove

Musselburgh

Lammermuir Festival: Cantatas, coffee and cake

By Alan Coady, 13 September 2015

John Butt's Dunedin Consort in an illustration and exploration of coffee house culture in Bach's 1730s Leipzig.

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Musselburgh

13 Sep 2015

Lammermuir Festival: Cantatas, coffee and cake

By Alan Coady

A wonderfully nimble Messiah from the Dunedin Consort

By David Smythe, 19 December 2014

With only twelve singers, including the soloists, the Dunedin Consort gives an insight into what the first Messiah might have sounded like in Dublin's Musick Hall in 1742.

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Perth

19 Dec 2014

A wonderfully nimble Messiah in Perth

By David Smythe

Dunbar

Lammermuir Festival: Acis and Galatea

By Alan Coady, 21 September 2014

John Butt and Dunedin Consort delight Dunbar Parish Church with Acis and Galatea

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Dunbar

21 Sep 2014

Lammermuir Festival: Acis and Galatea

By Alan Coady

Lammermuir Festival: Dunedin Consort in Mozart and C.P.E. Bach

By Alan Coady, 22 September 2013

Since reading Stravinsky’s assertion (in Poetics of Music) that “The more constraint one imposes, the more one frees oneself from the chains that shackle the spirit”, this paradox has fascinated me.

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Haddington

22 Sep 2013

Lammermuir Festival: Dunedin Consort in Mozart and C.P.E. Bach

By Alan Coady

Bristol

Baroque ABCs: Musicians from the OAE and John Butt at St George's Bristol

By David Fay, 25 March 2013

It can’t be often that one of the world’s pre-eminent Bach scholar-interpreters teams up with one of the world’s most famous period instrument ensembles to give a concert dedicated to one of the world’s most celebrated composers in one of the world’s most renowned acoustics.

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Bristol

25 Mar 2013

Baroque ABCs: Musicians from the OAE and John Butt at St George's Bristol

By David Fay

Dunedin Consort present the St Matthew Passion at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

By Alan Coady, 17 March 2013

Passion is not for the faint-hearted. This performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion weighed in at three hours (excluding interval). However, my attention did not waver, and this seemed true of the rest of enraptured audience.

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Edinburgh

17 Mar 2013

Dunedin Consort present the St Matthew Passion at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

By Alan Coady

Lammermuir Festival: Dunedin Consort's St John Passion

By Alan Coady, 14 September 2012

The motto of the Lammermuir Festival, now in its third year, is “beautiful music in beautiful places”. Few settings are more striking than St Mary’s Parish Church in Haddington.

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Haddington

14 Sep 2012

Lammermuir Festival: Dunedin Consort's St John Passion

By Alan Coady

Brandenburg/Cantata Series III: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady, 06 May 2012

The Dunedin Consort are, as I write, engaged in recording Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. On the eve of this undertaking, they presented the third and final part of their Brandenburg/Cantata series. The format of paired concerto and cantata in either half contained a novelty: this was the first time I'd heard the consort play a composer other than Bach.

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Edinburgh

06 May 2012

Brandenburg/Cantata Series III: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady

Brandenburg/Cantata Series II: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady, 07 February 2012

Contrasting vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular, the Dunedin Consort's 'Brandenburg/Cantata Series II' featured two of Bach's popular concerti grossi, flanked by a pair of sacred cantatas.Instrumental contrast distinguished the cantatas as much as the concerti.

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Edinburgh

07 Feb 2012

Brandenburg/Cantata Series II: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady

Brandenburg/Cantata Series I: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady, 06 January 2012

There's nothing like a Brandenburg to blow away Christmas cobwebs. Alongside contrasting cantatas, the Dunedin Consort offered the 3rd and 5th from Bach's 1721 set of six concerti grossi. This made for a compact and nicely balanced programme, contrasting the sacred with the secular and vocal with purely instrumental timbres.

Edinburgh

06 Jan 2012

Brandenburg/Cantata Series I: Dunedin Consort at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall

By Alan Coady

Dunedin Consort's superb Bach for Christmas at Perth Concert Hall

By David Smythe, 15 December 2011

The Dunedin Consort and Players is running a series of three concerts over the coming months, each programming two of Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos interspersed with two Cantatas. Although strictly speaking still in Advent, when Leipzig frowned on elaborate church music, a large crowd turned out to hear this imaginative all-Bach programme for this Christmas season in Perth Concert Hall.

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Haddington

15 Dec 2011

Dunedin Consort's superb Bach for Christmas at Perth Concert Hall

By David Smythe

Dunedin Consort and Players

By Alan Coady, 25 September 2011

The Closing Concert of the Lammermuir Festival took place in the historic St. Mary's Parish Church, Haddington – the site of John Knox's ordination as a Catholic priest, some years before the volte face which saw him spearheading the Scottish Reformation. An all-Baroque programme was presented by the Dunedin Consort, animatedly directed from the keyboard by John Butt.

Haddington

25 Sep 2011

Dunedin Consort and Players

By Alan Coady