John Potter
Richard Wistreich
News
Red Byrd’s distinctive but distinctly unmarketable policy of bringing musicians together for specific projects continues to spawn new combinations of singers and players. Recent incarnations have included a 17th century band celebrating the world of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester in the Vienna Resonanzen festival (with lutenist Robin Jeffrey, Jon Banks (keyboards), and fiddlers Sharon Lindo and Naomi Rogers) and 12/13th century St Andrew’s polyphony in collaboration with Stefan Morent’s ensemble Ordo Virtutum in the Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz ‘Cool Britannia’ series.
Current programmes also include a celebration of the life of 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys, and a ‘secret’ performance of the Byrd 4 Voice mass accompanied by Jacob Heringman and Suzanna Pell (lutes and viols). John & Richard still do ‘real’ a cappella music with their Anglo-German line-up featuring baritone Thomas Bauer (recently billed as 'a supergroup made up of former members of the Hilliard Ensemble, the Consort of Music, Singer Pur and Cantus Köln').
Lenin lives!
Red Byrd's Magister Leoninus 1 (affectionately known to its creators as Lenin) has been re-released on Hyperion's budget Helios label (Helios RCDH55328). Our most recent performance of 12th century polyphony was in the Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz ‘Cool Britannia' series with a programme of music from St Andrews.
The Hyperion site reminds us that in France the album won a DIAPASON D'OR and subsequently a DIAPASON D'OR DE L'ANNÉE, and was BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE BEST OF THE YEAR. Press was good too:
'Sung with beguiling beauty. These readings renew our sense of wonder at western music's most fundamental innovation - the sound of two voices simultaneously singing different lines that not only fit with, but also enhance, each other' (The Sunday Times)
'A fine contribution to the repertoire on disc of twelfth-century polyphony. A composite sound of great beauty' (Gramophone)
'Marvellously atmospheric. A rare and highly rewarding disc. Brilliant performances of neglected treasures' (Classic CD)
'Avec un splendide choeur pour le plain-chant, Red Byrd proposent une rencontre vivante et vibrante avec Léonin' (Répertoire, France)
'Absolutely stunning. Lost music re-born' (BBC Music Magazine)
Léonin 'Magister Leoninus' at Hyperion >
Biography
Red Byrd believes that the point of singing the music of the past is to illuminate the present. Its constant members are John Potter and Richard Wistreich, who are joined by other singers and instrumentalists with a strong grounding in early music to explore song old and new.
Its first concert, in the Musikfest Bremen in 1989, ranged from Monteverdi to Frank Martin and John Paul Jones, and in 1990-91 it toured Britain with both early and contemporary programmes. Since then it has visited the USA, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Finland.
In 1993 it gave the first performance of Ivan Moody’s Passsion And Resurrection with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir at the Tampere International Choir Festival, Finland. It later recorded the work with Cappella Amsterdam for Hyperion, adding to recordings of music by Monteverdi, Blow and Purcell with the Parley of Instruments on that label; the group has also made several recordings on Virgin Classics and Naxos. In 1998, Red Byrd’s first Léonin recording, Magister Leoninus, was made a disc of the year by the French magazine Diapason and BBC Music Magazine. A second CD of music by Léonin came out in 2001, and the group’s latest release (described as ‘absolutely stunning’ by BBC Music Magazine) is A Scottish Lady Mass – Sacred Music from Medieval St Andrews. Broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 have ranged from music by Landini, Palestrina and Purcell to John Cage, Thea Musgrave, Nigel Osborne and John Surman. Red Byrd contributes a number of tracks to Roger Marsh’s Pierrot Lunaire double CD which was released on NMC in 2007.
Discography
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A Scottish Lady Mass: Sacred Music from Medieval St Andrews Hyperion CDA67299 Buy at Amazon >
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Upgrade here "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
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Magister Leoninus: Sacred Music from 12th century Paris Hyperion CDA 66944 DIAPASON D'OR |
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Magister Leoninus II Hyperion CDA 67289 (2001)
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Upgrade here '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 |
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Monteverdi: Balli & dramatic madrigals Hyperion CDA 66475 (1991) Buy at Amazon >'One of the most perfect CDs ever made' Classical Express (USA) |
Tomkins: Consort Music Naxos 8.550602 (1995)
Gibbons: Songs & Anthems Naxos 8.550603 (1994)
Byrd: Songs & Anthems Naxos 8.550604 (1994) (also Naxos sampler Classic CD 14)
New fashions: Cries & Ballads CRD 3487 (1992)
Elizabethan Christmas anthems Saydisc CD-SAR 46 (1990)
Morley: Joyne Hands Virgin VC 7 91214-2 (1991)
Blow: Awake My Lyre Hyperion CDA 66658 (1993)
Purcell: Hark how the wild musicians sing Hyperion CDA 66750 (1994)
Ivan Moody: Passion & Resurrection Hyperion CDA 66999 (1997)
Songs of Love & Death Factory FAC 336 (1990)
Gibbons: Cries and Fancies Virgin VC 7 90849-2 (1989)