Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – BBC Music Magazine
BBC Music Magazine
John Butt’s spruced up Christmas Oratorio has the same sense of freshness as previous releases…’ BBC Music Magazine (Christmas 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
This is a beautifully crafted performance…There’s an easy flow to the tempos and the glowing singing of the arias is matched by deeply impressive instrumental obbligatos.’ The Sunday Times
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Financial Times
Financial Times
‘John Butt and his Dunedin Consort’s performance gives the composer’s Christmas fare a seasonal sparkle.’ Financial Times (16 December 2016)
Full Review
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Financial Times
Financial Times
John Butt and his Dunedin Consort’s performance gives the composer’s Christmas fare a seasonal sparkle.’ Financial Times (16 December 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – MusicWeb International
Recording of the Month
John Butt and his team have once again opened my ears to a fresh crystal-clear interpretation of Bach…Were it not too late, this would have been one of my Recordings of the Year.’ MusicWeb International (Brian Wilson, 15 December 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – BBC Radio 3 – Record Review
‘It’s exciting. It’s a real authentic sound. Joanne Lunn is a standout soprano. She’s precise and she’s warm and she makes the Echo Aria in the Fourth Cantata work…Her colleague Matthew Brook (bass), has exactly the weight and graininess for the rollicking trumpet aria in the First Cantata. It’s been well and intelligently recorded.’ BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’ (3 December 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – All Music
Butt’s solution is both clever and musically solid. Further, his mostly Scottish soloists add personality to the music and are worth hearing in themselves…This is a performance in which intelligent, small decisions cohere into a persuasive larger whole.’
AllMusic (2 December 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – MusicWeb International
Recording of the Month:
This Christmas Oratorio is another mightily successful feather in [Butt’s] cap. His small but perfectly formed team of experts, make a crack team when it comes to this music…there is a tremendous sense of excitement in this performance. A marvellous seasonal gift.’
MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson, 2 December 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Infodad
This [recording] is transcendent, in the sense that it encapsulates the meaning of Christmas…there are ample reasons to turn again and again [to it] for enjoyment inextricably woven with enlightenment.’ InfoDad (1 December 2016)
http://transcentury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/tis-more-than-season.html
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Early Music Review
Early Music Review
John Butt’s Christmas Oratorio with the Dunedins is splendid, from the crisp and perfectly tuned opening timpani strokes onward, and I hope it will sweep all before it as this Christmas’ “must-have” for all EMR readers.’ Early Music Review (15 November 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Scotsman
John Butt’s Dunedin Consort does it again. This red hot interpretation of the six cantatas that make up Bach’s Christmas Oratorio holds the attention from the word go. The opening chorus, Jauchzet frohlocket, hits you like a lightning bolt, Butt’s infectious energy and exhilarating musicianship infusing Bach’s joyous music with utterly compelling brilliance.’ The Scotsman (24 October 2016)
Full Review
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – Europadisc
Featured Album In Newsletter & Review: ‘Above all, it’s the sense of committed yet un-posturing devotion and sheer joy that makes this performance so extraordinarily successful. Beautifully recorded and presented, and fastidiously researched, it’s hard to imagine the Christmas Oratorio being better served than this.’ Europadisc (21 October 2016)
Bach Christmas Oratorio Review – The Herald Scotland
This absolutely essential recording is seventh heaven.’ The Herald Scotland (21 October 2016)
Magnificat Recording – AllMusic
AllMusic
the end result is a Bach performance that is original in concept and satisfying in details.
Bach Violin Concertos Recording – AllMusic
Audio Video Club of Atlanta – Phil Muse
In one of the most beautiful-sounding releases Linn has ever given us (and that’s saying a lot) John Butt directs the Dunedin Consort in accounts of the violin concertos of J.S. Bach that crave your attention even in a field that has been gleamed many times before. Relaxed motion, a nice feeling of swing, and the really beautiful sound of the baroque instruments played by the soloists, all contribute to the overall impression of charm allied with sensual beauty.
