Dunedin Consort, John Butt – Mozart: Mass in C Minor – C.P.E. Bach: Heilig ist Gott (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:09 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Following a highly anticipated televised performance at the 2023 BBC Proms, Dunedin Consort and its director John Butt now release Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor and Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach’s Heilig ist Gott on Linn. Devised to celebrate his marriage to Constanze, but left unfinished at the composer’s death, Mozart’s Mass can clearly be traced back to the choral writing of Johann Sebastian Bach and his son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel. This musical genealogy is displayed here in a lavish double-chorus, double-orchestra feast where both works echo each other. No stranger to Mozart – the ensemble’s recording of the Requiem was a Gramophone Award Winner and Grammy-nominated – Dunedin Consort puts its stamp on these most spectacular contributions to church music.
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Lucy Russell, John Butt – J.S. Bach: Sonatas for violin & harpsichord (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:25:17 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
Lucy Russell and John Butt, whose collaborations in the multi-award-winning Dunedin Consort bear testimony to their proficiency, here perform Bach’s six Sonatas for violin and harpsichord, works which effortlessly encompass an astonishingly diverse spectrum of mood and character. This new recording is a delight of softly spoken wonder.
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John Butt – J.S. Bach: Das wohltemperierte Klavier (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 03:32:23 minutes | 8,60 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The majority of modern recordings of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier are of piano performances, and the few harpsichord versions that come along often attract notice because of their relative scarcity. John Butt’s set on Linn warrants attention, not only for being a rarity, but more importantly for the extraordinary quality of his interpretations. An authority on Bach, Butt has written several books on the composer and distinguished himself as an expert on German Baroque music, both as a harpsichordist and conductor. Yet for all of his credentials, his playing of the WTC is far from pedantic or dry. His clear counterpoint, flexible rhythms, brisk tempos, lively ornamentation, and fluid phrasing make the 48 preludes and fugues fully musical and expressive, and at no point does the performance become dry or mechanical. Essential to this set’s success is the distinctive character of each piece, which keeps the listener alert to the variety of styles and expressions possible in this compendium of the keyboard art. Butt plays a modern copy of a German harpsichord, and the sound is full and vibrant in the stereo recording, made at St. Martin’s, East Woodhay, Hampshire, UK in 2013. Highly recommended.
Review by Blair Sanderson
Dunedin Consort, John Butt – Handel: Esther HWV 50a, First reconstructable version (Cannons), 1720 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:39:38 minutes | 1,92 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Named the 11th Greatest Choir by Gramophone, the Dunedin Consort has established a reputation as the finest single-part period performance choir currently performing. The Dunedin Consort’s highly anticipated new recording of Esther is the third recording in its hugely successful Handel series. The Consort has 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, Nicholas Mulroy, Matthew Brook and Thomas Hobbs, plus well-known guest soloists Robin Blaze and James Gilchrist.
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Dunedin Consort and John Butt – Handel: Samson (Full Chorus Version) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 03:24:08 minutes | 7,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Dunedin Consort continues to apply its pioneering approach to recordings by releasing two alternative performing versions of one of Handel’s greatest dramatic works, Samson. This is the Full Chorus Version.
This version employs an authentic Handelian chorus, comprising both boy trebles from the Tiffin Boys’ Choir and solo sopranos – a sonority largely unheard in the modern age.
This powerful oratorio – an opera in all but name – features Joshua Ellicott in the title role with soloists Sophie Bevan, Matthew Brook, Mary Bevan, Hugo Hymas, Jess Dandy, Vitali Rozynko and Fflur Wyn. Matching the revelatory historical practice begun in its award-winning recording of Messiah (Dublin Version, 1742), the soloists lead their sections to unite the solo and choral forces, creating a highly effective and cohesive sound. With rich orchestration and highlights such as ‘Let the bright seraphim’ and ‘Total eclipse’, Samson is Dunedin Consort’s most ambitious undertaking to date.
The singers available to Handel for the work’s first set of performances in 1743 varied considerably, leading many researchers to speculate upon the composer’s own preferences. Dunedin Consort has also recorded a Small Chorus Version which recreates the sonority heard at the work’s premiere in 1743 (as suggested by the research of Donald Burrows), which consists of the soloists alone. Customers who purchase the Full Chorus Version may email us to request a complimentary download of the Small Chorus Version.
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Dunedin Consort and John Butt – Bach: Ich habe genug. Cantatas BWV 32, 82 & 106 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:24 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
John Butt directs Dunedin Consort, one of the world’s leading Baroque ensembles, in this collection of three of Bach’s finest cantatas. Together, they explore the timely themes of consolation and salvation.
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Dunedin Consort and John Butt – J.S. Bach: Six Brandenburg Concertos (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:33:14 minutes | 3,82 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos are essential and enduringly popular works in the Baroque orchestral repertory, full of interesting instrumentation choices and dancing melodies. Under the direction of prize-winning Bach specialist John Butt O.B.E., the ensemble has become particularly acclaimed for its inquisitive approach, shining new light into some of the best known pieces of the Baroque repertoire. Dunedin Consort, the team that brought you ‘John Passion’, is back with its first instrumental release: ‘J.S. Bach: Six Brandenburg Concertos’. Under the direction of Bach specialist John Butt, Dunedin Consort demonstrates its collective experience and historical knowledge in an exceptionally insightful and fresh performance.
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Dunedin Consort, John Butt – J.S. Bach: John Passion, Reconstruction of Bach’s Passion Liturgy (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:18:43 minutes | 5,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
For the first time on record, listeners can experience Bach’s gripping John Passion within its original liturgical context. This recording of Bach’s John Passion gives listeners a refreshing outlook, shining a new light into one of the best known pieces of the choral repertoire. John Butt recreates the Good Friday Vesper liturgy of a passion performance during Bach’s time at Leipzig; in addition to the Dunedin Consort performance of Bach’s composition, this recording features music from an original Leipzig hymn book with works by Jacob Händl, J. H. Schein and J Crüger performed by a congregational choir and the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir.
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Dunedin Consort and John Butt – Acis and Galatea (Original Cannons Performing Version 1718) (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:35:13 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The second Handel recording from the award-winning Dunedin Consort is a revelation. The album was a Finalist in the Baroque Vocal category in the 2009 Gramophone Awards.
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Dunedin Consort, John Butt – Handel: Messiah (Dublin Version, 1742) (2006)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:19:58 minutes | 2,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
This superb 2-disc set, which features the Messiah as premiered by Handel in Dublin in 1742, was named the winner of Baroque Vocal Album of the Year in the 2007 Gramophone Awards.
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Dunedin Consort, John Butt – Bach: Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:41:03 minutes | 1,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The magnificent Orchestral Suites, known as “Ouvertüren” in German, form the final instalment in Dunedin Consort’s long-running Bach masterworks series for Linn, a series lauded as “nothing short of sensational” by “Gramophone”.
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Dunedin Consort, John Butt, Cecilia Bernardini – Bach, J.S.: Violin Concertos (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 59:58 minutes | 2,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
Opening the program is the colourful and joyful concerto for violin and oboe (Alfredo Bernardini, oboe) with its supremely lyrical central movement. Two of Bach’s solo violin concertos, each overflowing with inventive detail, and the Sinfonia with solo oboe that opens Cantata 21, follow.
The program culminates in one of Bach’s greatest masterpieces – the Double Concerto for two violins (Huw Daniel, violin), with its famous and sublime slow movement. Although Bach was most famous as an organist and keyboard player, he was also a fine violinist; his idiomatic writing and characteristic flair is evident in the many dazzling moments he creates.
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Dunedin Consort, John Butt – J.S. Bach: Magnificat & Christmas Cantata (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:26:46 minutes | 1,76 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
Dunedin Consort recreates Bach’s first Christmas at Leipzig (Vespers in the Nikolaikirche, 25 December 1723); the recording opens with a Gabrieli motet and includes organ preludes and a seasonal congregational chorale. Director John Butt has given listeners an interpretation that will provide a refreshing outlook on this masterpiece and will show the Magnificat in a completely new light. This recording marks the return of Dunedin Consort’s star-studded cast including, Nicholas Mulroy, Matthew Brook, Joanne Lunn and Clare Wilkinson plus newcomer Julia Doyle.
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![Dunedin Consort, John Butt - J.S. Bach: Matthew Passion (Final performing Version, c. 1742) (2008) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/21/ghq1iv1j0mpqc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Dunedin Consort, John Butt – J.S. Bach: Matthew Passion (Final performing Version, c. 1742) (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:41:09 minutes | 2,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
This wonderful new recording of the St Matthew Passion is the first to adopt Bach’s final revisions to the score as performed in 1742. Most casual listeners may not be able to identify the departure in scoring from the most commonly performed 1736 version: which amounts to the replacement of organ with harpsichord in the second orchestra, and an additional viola da gamba in a recitative and aria. However, where this recording really stands out is in the size of the vocal forces. A total of eight singers are employed, therefore providing just four voices for each of the two choirs. This arrangement clearly has potential disadvantages for those of us raised on the full chorus monumental direction from the likes of Richter and Klemperer. On the other hand, and as John Butt points out in his informative essay, there might be an aesthetic advantage in hearing the voices ‘as individuals constituting a group rather than simply as a crowd’.
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![Dunedin Consort, John Butt - J.S. Bach Mass in B Minor - Breitkopf & Härtel Edition, edited by J. Rifkin (2006) (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/21/bh9y15ilcjs1b_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Dunedin Consort, John Butt – J.S. Bach Mass in B Minor – Breitkopf & Härtel Edition, edited by J. Rifkin (2006) (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:42:07 minutes | 1,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
There are few who strive sincerely to juxtapose the bedfellows of academic rigour and inspired musicianship. Given his recent Handelian activity at the helm of the Dunedin Consort and Players, some might have forgotten that John Butt is a Bach research specialist and author of the Cambridge Handbook on the Mass in B minor. In the booklet he explains his thoughts about historically informed performance practice (one voice per part, following the evidence outlined in the writings of Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott), and discusses his choice to make the first recording of Rifkin’s recent edition (which reconstructs Bach’s score c1749, without later accretions). Butt’s interpretation owes firm allegiance to the “OVPP” creed that will not please everyone (even if detractors have not yet produced a single scrap of proof to refute it), but the Dunedin Consort and Players are never perfunctory or merely dogmatic. This performance demands to be heard.
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