1. Recent releases & ‘new’ music
Ambrose Field: Being Dufay
ECM New Series 2071 476 6948
- 'Here's a singer of such insight and imagination that everything he touches seems to turn to gold. In Dufay mode, with his friend the composer Ambrose Field, he delivers everything you'd expect, and more.' Classic FM Magazine
- ‘I can think of few singers quite so suited to such music’ BBC Music Magazine June 2009
- ‘John Potter, whose beautiful voice seems to dominate the album at least emotionally…a vocalist of rare versatility and erudition…’ Progression 17.4.09
- 'The full power of the digital Potter is unleashed towards the end where it explodes into full audio Technicolor.’ Musicalcriticism.com
- 'One of the most hauntingly beautiful records of the year' Allabout jazz
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Romaria
The Dowland Project
ECM New Series 1970 476 5780
(with John Surman saxes & bass clt, Stephen Stubbs lutes, Milos Valent violin/viola)
- The point about the Dowland Project’s work is less the repertoire than the freedom and telling immediacy with which it is performed. It isn’t that the composer’s notes aren’t respected – rather they are interpreted and embellished by insightful musicians eager to dig beneath. John Potter’s beautifully modulated light tenor summons timeless spirituality and sensuality. Sunday Times, 20th April 2008 ****
- Forget crass labels like "crossover" - "Romaria" is as pure a musical experience as you're likely to have.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008
- With this, its third mesmeric and magical album, the Dowland Project applies its modus operandi - developing new realisations of early music through improvisation and experimental interaction - to a selection of pieces from the early-13th to late-16th centuries. Purists may quibble, but the results are convincing and, more importantly, utterly compelling and ravishingly beautiful. BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 *****
- With Romaria… new territory is broached: it's a stunning disc, in which the Project's particular brand of "crossover" is completely validated. Goldberg
- Yet another example of his trailblazing steerage and vision... All About Jazz
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Care Charming Sleep
The Dowland Project
(with John Surman saxes & bass clt, Stephen Stubbs lutes, Maia Homburger violin, Barry Guy bass)
ECM New Series 1803 476 052-2
- …mind-bending creativeness…not only does Potter bend gender (he is a most unlikely nymph) but Barry Guy and John Surman bring a late-night jazz club feel…
American Record Guide - Potter has one of the warmest, most expressive yet unmelodramatic tenor voices around.
Gramophone - Dangerously seductive stuff…
International Record review - Natalie Wheen’s Classical CD of the Year
Classic FM
A Sunday Times Record of the Year
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Dowland: In darkness let me dwell
The Dowland Project
with John Surman (bass clarinet, saxophones), Barry Guy (bass),
Maia Homburger (violin), Stephen Stubbs (lute)
ECM New Series 1697 465 234-2
- A Sunday Times Record of the Year
No 5 in the New York Times list of best records of the year
cited in Manfred Eicher's Grammy nomination
Audio (Germany) Classic CD of the Month
- In Darkness let me Dwell is a rarity: a crossover project that is both defensible and listenable...Mr. Potter and company have added new instruments to old in readings balanced between the orthodox and the radical... New York Times
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Officium
The Hilliard Ensemble & Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
ECM 1525 445369-2 (1994)
[Gold discs from the UK, Germany, Norway, Austria & Switzerland]
Mnemosyne
The Hilliard Ensemble & Jan Garbarek (saxophone)
ECM 1700/01 465 122-2 (1999)
(2 CD set)
Songs of Love & Death
(Frank Martin, John Paul Jones, Monteverdi, Brian Elias, Harvey Brough)
Red Byrd
Factory FAC 336 (1990)
A Hilliard Songbook
(Piers Hellawell, Joanne Metcalf, Barry Guy,
James MacMillan, Arvo Pärt, Elizabeth Liddle, Paul Robinson, Veijo Tormis)
Hilliard Ensemble 2 Cds:
ECM 1614115 453 259-2 (1996)
Erik Bergman: Bim Bam Bum
New London Chamber Choir/Wood
Chandos 8478 (1986)
Luciano Berio: A-Ronne, Cries of London
Swingle 11
Decca 425 620-2 (1976)
Gavin Bryars: Vita Nova
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1533 445351-2 (1994)
Gavin Bryars: Cadman Requiem
Hilliard Ensemble
Point 462 511-2 (1999)
Gavin Bryars: Oi me lasso
Gavin Bryars Ensemble
GB Records BCGBCD05
Gavin Bryars: Lockerbie Memorial Concert
Hilliard Ensemble
GB Records BCGBCD03
Mychael Danna: Lilies (soundtrack)
Hilliard Ensemble
Varese Sarabande VSD-5868 (1997)
Giya Kancheii: Abii ne viderem
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1510 445941-2 (1995)
Andrew Keeling: Quickening the dead
RVRCD55
Roger Marsh: Albert Giraud’s Pierrot Lunaire
Hilliard Ensemble/Red Byrd
NMC D127 (2 CDs)
lvan Moody: Passion & Resurrection
Red Byrd/Daniel Reuss
Hyperion CDA66999 (1997)
Arvo Pärt: Litany
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1592 449810-2 (1996)
Arvo Pärt: Passio
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1370 837 109-2 (1988)
DVD Arvo Pärt: St John Passion [Arthaus Musik 100248] (1988)
[recorded live in Durham Cathedral]
Arvo Pärt: Arbos
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1325 831 959-2 (1987)
Arvo Pärt: Miserere, Sarah was ninety years old
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 847 539-2 (1991)
Larry Polanski: 4 voice canons
(with York Vocal Index)
Cold Blue CB0011 (USA)
Stravinsky: Les Noces
New London Chamber Choir/Wood
Hyperion CDA66410 (1991)
Invocation
(compilation including Veljo Tormis' Estonian Lullaby)
Hilliard Ensemble
Island 314-524 441-2 (1997)
2. MEDIEVAL MUSIC
Play of Daniel
Dufay Collective
Harmonia Mundi USA
Cancionero
Dufay Collective
Avie AV0005
[Grammy nominated & Gramophone CD of the Year]
A Scottish Lady Mass: Sacred Music from St Andrews
Red Byrd
Hyperion CDA67299
- The listener is left marvelling at the ingenuity and imagination that produced such an intriguing wealth of rhythmic, harmonic and textural effects from the interplay of just two voices. Red Byrd's performances convincingly recreate this distant sound-world, as well as conveying the excitement with which musicians must have explored the thrilling possibilities opened up by the idea of having two notes sounding simultaneously.
Elizabeth Roche Daily Telegraph - The music is stark and plainly cast, and these very experienced early-music singers effectively capture its direct, unadorned style, delivered with their typically warm, accurately pitched, carefully inflected, prodigiously engaging voices.
David Vernier Classics Today
Magister Leoninus: Sacred Music from 12th century Paris
Red Byrd/Cappella Amsterdam
Hyperion CDA66944 (1997)
Magister Leoninus 2
Red Byrd & Yorvox
Hyperion CDA67289
- John Potter and Richard Wistreich wring the utmost tenderness and beauty from these pieces - especially in the verse of 'Sedit angelus' where the word 'crucifixum' is made to evoke a mysterious medieval religious agony. And the odd, searing harmonies in 'Iudea et Iherusalem' take us into a long-lost, almost psychological world of musical expression.
Anthony Pryor, BBC Music Magazine March 2002
Sumer is icumen in: Medieval English Songs
Hilliard Ensemble (1985)
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901154
Machaut: Mass de Notre dame
Hilliard Ensemble
Hyperion CDA 66358 (1989)
The Old Hall Manuscript
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 54111 2 (1991)
(Virgin 7243 5 61393 2 9)
Miri it is: Medieval English music
Dufay Collective
Chandos CHAN 9396 (1996)
Perotin
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1385 837 751-2 (1989)
Music of the Gothic Era
Early Music Consort/Munrow
Archiv 415 292-2 (1976)
Music of the Middle Ages
Early Music Consort/Munrow
DGG Classikon 439 424-2
Medieval Music
Sunday Times Music Collection
Hilliard Ensemble
Conifer ST4 (1994)
Perotin & the Ars Antiqua
Hilliard Ensemble
HL001(1997)
3. RENAISSANCE MUSIC
Songs & Dances from Shakespeare
Broadside Band
Saydisc CD-SDL 409 (1995)
Nicolas Gombert 1 (Missa Quam pulchra es + motets)
The Sound & the Fury
ORF 463
Nicolas Gombert 2 (Missa Sur tous regrets + motets)
The Sound & the Fury
ORF SACD 3006
Guillaume Fauges (Missae Le Serviteur & Je suis en la mer)
The Sound & the Fury
ORF SACD 3025
Media Vita (Gombert Missa Media vita; Lamentations: de la Rue, Crequillon, Brumel)
Vokalsolisten Ratisbona
ORF CD333
The Triumphs of Maximilian
(Songs from 16th century Germany)
Musica Antiqua of London
Signum SIGCD004 (1998)
In Paradisum: motets by Victoria & Palestrina + 17th century French chant
ECM Ner Series 1653 457 851-2
Lassus: Requiem & Prophetiae Sibyllarum
ECM New Series 1658 453 841-2
Dufay: Missa Se la face ay pale & motets
Hilliard Ensemble
HL004
Dufay: Missa 1'homme armé & motets
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 47628 2 (1987)
Sweet-love, sweet hope
(Dufay etc from Canonici 213)
Hilliard Ensemble
Isis CD030 (1996)
Johannes Ockeghem 1 (Missae L’homme armé & Prolationum)
The Sound & the Fury
ORF SACD 3024
Ockeghem: Missa Prolationum
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 49798 2 (1989)
Ockeghem: Requiem & Missa mi-mi
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 429213 2 (1985)
For Ockeghem: mass movements & tribute pieces
Hilliard Ensemble
HL002
Josquin: Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae & motets
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 49960 2 (1990)
Pierre de la Rue: Missa Cum Iocunditate & motets
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 54082 2 (1992)
(Virgin 7243 5 61392 2 0)
Spanish & Mexican renaissance vocal music
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDS 7 54341 2 (1991)
(Virgin 7243 5 61394 2 8)
Morales: Missa 'Mille regretz'
Hilliard Ensemble
Aimaviva DS0101 (1992)
Walter Frye
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1476 437684-2 (1993)
The Art of the Netherlands
Early Music Consort/Munrow
EMI CMS 7 64215 2 (1976/1992)
Lassus: Missa pro defunctis; Prophetiae Sibyllarum
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1658 453 841-2
Lassus: Motets and Chansons
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 49210 2 (1984)
Lassus: Penitential Psalms
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDS 7 49211 8 (1986)
Brumel: Victimae paschali mass & motets
Hilliard Ensemble
HL003(1997)
Palestrina: Canticum Canticorum
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDS 7 49010 8 (1986)
Sacred & Secular Music from six centuries
Hilliard Ensemble
Hyperion CDA 66370 (1990)
Music for Christian IV
(16th century Danish music)
Hilliard Ensemble
BIS 389 (198718)
Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 843 867-2 (1991)
Gentil Madonna (Italian renaissance songs)
London Pro Musica
Cariton Classics 30365 00082
A Florentine Carnival
London Pro Musica/Thomas
Pickwick PCD 825 (1986)
Music for all Seasons
London Early Music Group/Tyler
RCA Red Seal RL 25159 (1978)
Codex Specialnik (Prague)
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1504 447 807-2 (1995)
Tailis: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1341 833 308-2 (1987)
Byrd: Songs & Anthems
Red Byrd
Naxos 8.550604 (1994)
(Naxos sampler Classic CD 14)
Byrd: Songs of sundrie natures
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 47961 2 (1987)
Tomkins: Consort Music
Red Byrd
Naxos 8.550602 (1995)
Gibbons: Songs & Anthems
Red Byrd
Naxos 8.550603 (1994)
Draw on sweet night: English madrigals
Hilliard Ensemble
MI CDC 7 49197 2 (1988)
re-released as 2-CD set English & Italian Renaissance Madrigals
Virgin Veritas 7243 5 61671 2 4
Dowland: Ayres
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 49805 2 (1989)
Dowland: In darkness let me dwell
with John Surman (saxes, bass clarinet), Barry Guy (bass),
Maia Homburger (violin), Stephen Stubbs (lute)
The Singing Club: catches etc
Hilliard Ensemble
Harmonia Mundi HMA 1901 153 (1985)
Italian Renaissance madrigals
Hilliard Ensemble
EMICDC 7 54435 2 (1992)
re-released as 2-CD set English & Italian Renaissance Madrigals
Virgin Veritas 7243 5 61671 2 4
New fashions: Cries & Ballads
Red Byrd
CRD 3487 (1992)
4. BAROQUE MUSIC
English National Songs
Broadside Band/Barlow
Saydisc CD-SDL 400 (1993)
Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
Tragicomedia
Teldec 4509-91183-2 (1994)
Morimur - J S Bach
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM New Series 1765; 289 461 895-2
Bach: Motets
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDC 7 49204 2
Sances: Missa Solicita & motets
Musica Fabula
ASV CDGAU180 (1998)
Monteverdi:
Tempro la cetra, Tirsi e Clori
Tragicomedia
Teldec 4509-90798-2 (1993)
Monteverdi: Madrigali concertati
Tragicomedia
:
Teldec 4509-91971-2 (1993)
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
Chiaroscuro/Rogers
EMI 0777 7 64947 2 2 (1984)
Mannerist Madrigals
(Monteverdi & D'India)
Chiaroscuro/Nigel Rogers
Virgin 7243 5 611625 2 8 (1994)
Monteverdi Vespers
Tragicomedia/Stephen Stubbs
ATMA ACD2 2304/05 (Canada)
Monteverdi:
Balli & dramatic madrigals
[includes I; Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda]
Red Byrd
HyperionCDA66475 (1991); Helios CDH55165
- One of the most perfect CDs ever made Classical Express (USA)
Verse Anthems
Clare College Cambridge
Nicholas McGegan
HMU 907053 (1992)
Lawes & Johnson: Orpheus I am
Tragicomedia
EMI CDC 7 543112 (1991)
Purcell: Hark how the wild musicians sing
Red Byrd
Hyperion CDA 66750 (1994)
Blow: Awake My Lyre
Red Byrd
Hyperion CDA66658 (1993)
Schütz: Cantiones Sacra e
Weser-Renaissance/Cordes
cpo 999 405-2 (1997)
Schütz: Symphoniae Sacrae 1
Concerto Palatino
Accent ACC 9178179 D (1992)
Schütz: Schwanengesang
Hilliard Ensemble
EMI CDS 7 49214 8 (1985)
Theile: St Matthew Passion
London Baroque/Mediam
Harmonia Mundi HMC 1159
5. Ancient History…
Handel: Dettingen Te Deum
Paris University Orchestra/Grimbert
Calliope CAL 1688 (vinyl)
with Swingle II (vinyl)
Madrigals CBS 80147
Words and Music CBS 80554
Words and Music vol 2 CBS 81546
Rags and all that Jazz CBS 80947
Baroque CBS 69209
Swingle 11 RCA RL25112 (a cappella)
CD re-release: Swing Sing Sony 88697 552462
with Manfred Mann's Earthband:
Angel Station COMMECD4 (1979) (vocal + arrangement)
with Gentle Power of Song (vinyl):
Peace
Polydor 583017/DGG Privilege
(late 60's...)
Circus
Polydor 583084
(even later 60s...)
‘Constant Penelope’
6. Record Production:
Trio Mediaeval: Soir dit-elle ECM 1869 476 1241
Stella Maris ECM 1929 476 3021
Words of the angel ECM 1753 461782-2