ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD
VIOLINIST | DIRECTOR | CONDUCTOR
'...and all with a neat dexterity and range of colouristic detail to the shaping that suggests that for Butterfield it's all as effortless as falling off a log.'
Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone Magazine, June 2022
'Equally fascinating is Butterfield's one-to-a-part version of Handel's Sonata a 5; the shading and textures he brings to his line, and the Corellian lashings which he and the others apply to their parts, are their invention.'
Berta Joncus, BBC Music Magazine, December 2023
'[Adrian Butterfield's] synergy with harpsichordist Silas Wollston is at its best in the brilliant fast movements, performed with invigorating rhythmic drive and inner clarity. The duo also offers some sublime moments of musical poetry...'
Robin Stowell, The Strad Magazine, June 2023
Adrian Butterfield has gained an international reputation as a violinist, director and conductor who specialises in period performance of music from about 1600-1900. He is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Festival, Associate Music Director of the London Handel Festival, Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London and teaches on numerous baroque music courses.
He leads and directs The London Handel Players and The Revolutionary Drawing Room and directs and conducts The London Handel Orchestra as well as being invited to work as a guest with many other ensembles in Europe and North America.
New recordings were released in 2023: JS Bach's sonatas for keyboard and violin and London Handel Players' 'Total Eclipse' ('Handel at Home, Vol. 2').
Leclair's Third Book of violin sonatas Op.5 in 3 volumes was released in 2022 on Naxos Records. This is the world premiere recording of this complete set and they were recorded with the wonderful team of Sarah McMahon, cello, and Silas Wollston, harpsichord.
'Butterfield here does an exceptionally stylish job of capturing Leclair’s tasteful elegance, and with a nice spring to the dance rhythms; likewise the Frenchman’s famed neatness and sweetness.'
Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone Magazine, March 2022
'Adrian Butterfield and his various musical partners are gradually establishing themselves as the acknowledged champions of Leclair’s violin sonatas...[He] seems totally at ease with the more adventurous technical challenges of these sonatas...his tempos are largely spot-on, allowing for clarity of articulation...His crystal-clear tone rings out sweetly in the lyrical, sensitively phrased slow movements...The recording, with Butterfield slightly to the fore in the balance, is top drawer.'
Robin Stowell, Strad Magazine, June 2022
A recording of some of Handel’s Chandos works, his Chandos Te Deum and Chandos Anthem No.8, was released in 2018 having been recorded for the first time in St. Lawrence, Whitchurch, the beautiful church for which they were written and for the same sort of forces the composer had at his disposal.
'Butterfield's slimline performing forces fit the music like a glove. The single voices combine harmoniously in contrapuntal choruses, and unaccompanied passages are shaded poignantly. Charles Daniels’s deft navigation of a stratospheric register interweaves deftly with Nicholas Mulroy’s soaring on the highest tenor parts, Benedict Hymas delivers the lowest tenor line articulately, and Edward Grint and Grace Davidson sing the outer parts with intelligent precision. Their conversational transparency is matched by expertly stylish playing… Butterfield’s decisions make much better musical sense, and the relaxed sincerity of his musicians yields revelatory new insights.'
David Vickers, Gramophone Magazine, February 2019
'The result is a long way from larger-scale choral interpretations of this music, and the whole disc pulses with an engaging, intimate vitality.… Adrian Butterfield has chosen a fine group of soloists…. The style is crisp and vivid, with Butterfield clearly relishing the bite which his small ensemble is able to bring to the pieces…. I for one hope that Adrian Butterfield and his forces give us more.’
Planet Hugill, January 2019
