Adrian BUTTERFIELD
Qualifications: MA(Cantab), ARCM
Adrian Butterfield is now established as one of the most versatile period-instrument musicians of his generation in the UK and abroad working as a conductor and violinist-director with both modern- and period-instrument orchestras, and as a concerto soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A former chorister of St. Paul’s Cathedral and a graduate of Trinity College Cambridge, he is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Society and Associate Musical Director of the London Handel Festival and directs ensembles such as the London Handel Orchestra, the Hanover Band and the Theatre of Early Music, Montreal across Europe and North America.
He has appeared on numerous recordings and with most of the period-instrument orchestras in London. Recent solo recordings include C P E Bach sonatas with Laurence Cummings for ATMA, Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in E flat RV 254 for BIS and the Bach Concerto for oboe and violin with John Abberger for Analekta.
He leads two chamber ensembles in London. The London Handel Players perform regularly at festivals throughout Europe and have made several appearances at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Their two recent recordings, the first of Handel’s op 5 trio sonatas and the second entitled Handel at Home, both for Somm, have been highly acclaimed. The Revolutionary String Quartet specializes in classical and romantic music on period instruments, has recorded quartets by Boccherini and Donizetti for CPO, broadcast repertoire from Telemann to Mendelssohn for the BBC and has performed in North America and across Europe.
Recent highlights include rare performances on period instruments of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Hanover Band at St. John’s, Smith Square in London, Bach Brandenburg Concertos in Ottawa, Thomas Linley’s Violin Concerto in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Mozart and Haydn symphonies with the Hanover Band, a Handel programme with soprano Carolyn Sampson and appearances at festivals in Romania, Italy and Denmark. He has recently conducted Handel’s Fireworks Music, Rameau’s Pigmalion and an all-Bach programme in collaboration with the Thomanenchor, Leipzig, all at the Royal College of Music.
He works regularly with the Southbank Sinfonia, is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London and directs the RCM Baroque Orchestra.
Plans for 2007 include a “300 Years of Handel” programme in the London Handel Festival, several concerts with Emma Kirkby and the London Handel Players in the UK, further tours to Canada, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in Romania, teaching on the Aestas Musica Baroque Course in Croatia and recordings of violin sonatas by Handel and Leclair.
“Adrian Butterfield was the outstanding soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, his exquisite sense of musical line and phrasing matched by a lovely singing tone quality achieved through the minimal use of a gentle vibrato – reflecting contemporary records of the expressive singing quality of the original soloist, Franz Clement.” Early Music Review, June 06