Adrian Butterfield
Adrian is a violinist, director
and conductor who specialises in performing music from 1600-1900 on period
instruments. 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. He regularly
directs the London Handel Orchestra and Players and the Theatre of Early Music,
Montreal and is increasingly invited as a guest director in Europe and North
America.
He has appeared on numerous recordings and with
most of the period-instrument orchestras in London. His solo recordings include
CPE Bach sonatas (ATMA), Bach’s Concerto for
oboe and violin with John Abberger (Analekta) and Handel’s Violin Sonatas (Somm). His recording of Leclair's
1st Book of sonatas (Naxos), issued on 3 separate CDs, was released in 2009 to
great acclaim.
He leads two chamber ensembles in London. The
London Handel Players perform regularly at the Wigmore Hall and at festivals
throughout Europe and have made several appearances in Canada. Their recent
Handel recordings, of his Op.2 and Op.5 trio sonatas, “Handel at
Home” as well as the Violin Sonatas, all for Somm,
have received glowing reviews. The
Revolutionary Drawing Room 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. Future plans
include recording Mozart's Clarinet Quintet with Colin Lawson.
Repertoire Adrian has conducted includes Bach's
B minor Mass, Handel’s La Resurrezione and Alcina,
Purcell's Fairy Queen, Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e Corpo
and Rameau’s Pigmalion and concerto appearances include
numerous baroque works, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the LHO and rare performances on period instruments of the
Beethoven Concerto with the Hanover Band.
He directs a baroque project annually with the
Southbank Sinfonia, is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of
Music in London, gives masterclasses in Europe and North America and teaches on
the Aestas Musica Baroque Course in
Croatia.
Highlights of the 2011-12 season include
appearances with LHP at the Cambridge Handel
Festival, at the Handel House Museum to mark the Museum's 10th anniversary and
their first US tour in January 2012. He will be directing the LHO at the Wigmore Hall in April and conducting them in the
St. John Passion for the Tilford Bach Society's 60th Festival in May where he
will also be directing a concert with the London Mozart Players. The RDR are performing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet at the Royal
College of Music with Colin Lawson and appearing also in Germany and Ireland.
He has also been invited to perform with Les Boréades
and with Les Idées Heureuses
in Montreal.
Adrian is married to the period-instrument
flautist and recorder player Rachel Brown and they have one daughter.
Photo:
Chris Christodolou