Welcome to my website.

It’s time for an update of what I’ve been getting up to and what is ahead of me this season.

Something to look out for at the end of the month is the release of my latest recording with Linn Records and my Grammy nominated and multi Gramophone awarded colleagues in the Dunedin Consort, John Butt and Philip Hobbs.  Handel’s Samson is our biggest project so far in our series of recordings over the years, that have included all of Bach’s major vocal works and some of Handel’s oratorios.  I’m singing the role of Manoah, Samson’s father.  Manoah gets some fabulous music to sing and there are some truly outstanding contributions from my colleagues on the disc, so feel free to purchase online or at your friendly local cd sales shop.

My recent recording of Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with Sir Andrew Davies and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on the Chandos label is an obvious Christmas stocking item, you are allowed to shout “Boo” at my unhinged character Herod on the first cd, then say “Ahh!” at the friendly Ishmaelite father of the family section on the second cd!  I get some nice tunes to sing on both cds!

I have enjoyed developing working relationships with friends old and new, Harry Bicket, Harry Christophers, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla (CBSO, and Orchestra National de France), Bernard Labadie (Orchestra of St Luke’s, Les Violons du Roy in New York’s Carnegie Hall), Liz Kenny, Peter Seymour, John Nelson and Kristian Bezuidenhout. The Nederlandse Bachvereniging have released more of their fabulous AllofBach series, and I am featuring in quite a few of this year’s new releases. They are beautifully filmed, carefully prepared and recorded, and are free to watch on their website, so please, have a look and enjoy our offerings.

I have a very busy opera Season ahead, having just got back from Oviedo Opera singing the role of Argante in Rinaldo, I have Claudio from Agrippina with the wonderful Ann Hallenberg in Seville next February to look forward to, and another Ariodante, singing the role of Il Re with Boston Baroque along side the mesmerising Paula Murrihy, then finish the season with a concert performance of Orlando at the York Early Music festival with the stunning Carolyn Sampson.  Lucky man!

Later this autumn I will be singing Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazuki Yamada, and will tour Germany with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Kristian Bezuidenhout, singing Purcell and Handel. I will also be singing with my dear friends the Bach Players in Norwich and London’s St John’s Smith Square at advent time.  After my Messiah in Westminster Cathedral with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen in December, I finish the Christmas season in snowy Canada with Bernard Labadie and two orchestras, Les Violons du Roy in Quebec City and Montreal and the Canada National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.

The Spring season will include Beethoven in the Carnegie Hall, Bach in Boston Symphony Hall, Mendelssohn in Leeds and Florida, Handel in Hannover, Elgar in York, and many other things, so please try and come along and support these great ventures that all these organisations put on for your delight!

Matthew Brook

October 2019