Matthew Brook

Bass-baritone

• Biography
• Reviews
• Repertoire
• Photos

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  Matthew Brook leapt to fame with his 2007 Gramophone Award winning recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort, followed by equally critically acclaimed recordings of Acis and Galatea and St Matthew Passion. 

  Recent and future highlights include a recording for Virgin Classics and European tours singing Il Re di Scozia Ariodante with Alan Curtis and Il Complesso, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, Zuniga in Carmen with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Kouno in Der Freischütz at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and his debut with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchester in a concert of Bach Cantatas conducted by Marcus Creed.

  Matthew Brook is represented worldwide by Ben Rayfield at Rayfield Allied.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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  • Haman (Handel’s Esther - First Reconstructable Version (Cannons), 1720)
    The Dunedin Consort/Butt, CD Linn CKD397

    Brook’s performance of the villain Haman’s ‘Turn not, O Queen’ transfixes everyone

    David Vickers, Gramophone

    Brook’s noble singing of Haman’s (futile) plea for mercy to Esther and his admonitory final aria give the oratorio’s villain near-tragic grandeur

    Richard Wigmore, Gramophone

  • Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem, Monteverdi Choir/Gardiner
    CD SDG706 (May 2012)

    Matthew Brook’s dark-hued baritone is excellent for the role

    Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine

    The baritone Matthew Brook opens ‘Herr, lehre doch mich’ with a simple eloquence that is very persuasive…The combination of an unaffected solo baritone and period woodwind at ‘Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen’ is extremely effective...

    Nigel Simeone , International Record Review

  • ‘Welt, gute Nacht’ (J.C.Bach), English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner,
    CD SDG715, December 2011

    Matthew Brook’s powerful, richly-hued Wie bist du den, o Gott with its incredible two-octave vocal range

    Charlotte Gardner, Classic FM

  • Seneca (L’Incoronazione di Poppea),
    Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Curtis, June 2011

    Only Matthew Brook as Seneca, Anders Dahlin as Ottone and Nicola Marchesini as the Nurse had any real grasp of Monteverdian style

    Opera Now

  • The King of Scotland (Ariodante), Il Complesso Barocco/Curtis,
    Virgin Classics 0 70844-2, May 2011

    The Briton Matthew Brook [...] proves himself an outstanding Handel bass as the King of Scotland

    Hugh Canning, International Record Review

  • The King of Scotland (Ariodante), Il Complesso Barocco/Curtis,
    Barbican Centre, London, May 2011

    [The] King of Scotland [was] ...sympathetically incarnated in Il Complesso Barocco’s concert performance by Matthew Brook...this was a feast of bel canto so delicious as to melt the prejudices of even the most hardened Handel opera sceptics.

    Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

    Matthew Brook [was] a sonorous King of Scotland

    Richard Fairman , The Financial Times

    Matthew Brook made the most of the role of the King of Scotland, his bass deep and emotive...'Invida sorte' was sung with pronounced feeling

    John E. de Wald, Opera Britannia

  • Weber, Der Freischütz, Opera Comique, Paris / Gardiner
    April 2011

    The singing was first rate...Matthew Brook made an impressive Kouno

    James Jolly, Gramophone

  • Bach, Christmas Oratorio / The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/  Butt
    Queen Elizabeth Hall, December 2010

    “Brook's baritone realised the greatest variety of expressive tone-colour”

    Rhian Evans, The Guardian

  • Vaughan Williams, Sancta Civitas, Bach Choir/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/David Hill
    Naxos 8.572424 (May 2010)

    [Vaughan Williams] would have appreciated these fine soloists, chief among them Matthew Brook, who turns anything he sings to gold.

    Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian

    There is infinite compassion, in the third movement … from baritone Matthew Brook, whose grainy timbre I can best compare to that of a youthful John Tomlinson

    Piers Burton-Page, International Record Review

  • “Bach and Beyond”, Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti
    (Australia, April 2010)

    Brook’s agile bass.

    Clive O’Connell,The Age

    animated; especially Matthew Brook (bass), whose delivery is assertive; commanding, even.

    Lloyd Bradford Syke, The Australian Stage

  • Friar Tuck (Ivanhoe), BBC National Orchestra of Wales/David Lloyd-Jones,
    Chandos Records CHAN10578 (January 2010)

    “’Ho, jolly Jenkin’… spiritedly tossed off by Matthew Brook.”

    John T. Hughes, International Record Review

    “vigorous and spirited rendition of “Ho, jolly Jenkin.”

    – Faye Courtney, Opera Britannia

    “very well-sung by Matthew Brook”

    David Laviska, Musical Criticism

  • Handel Messiah, Handel and Haydn Society/Harry Christophers
    (Boston Symphony Hall, December 2010)

    Tenor Tom Randle and baritone Matthew Brook both had powerful, robust voices that served them well at the most dramatic moments.

    David Weininger, The Boston Globe

• Matthew Brook Concert Repertoire

  Bach

  • Magnificat including interpolations
  • Masses in A, G, and F
  • B Minor Mass
  • St John Passion
  • St Matthew Passion
  • Christmas Oratorio
  • Easter Oratorio
  • Cantatas including numbers: 13, 18, 27, 32, 52, 56, 62, 66, 70, 78, 82, 85, 106, 110, 132, 140, 150, 151, 152, 158, 161, 164, 165, 182, 211

  JC Bach

  • Wie bist du den O Gott

  Buxtehude

  • Jesu membra nostre

  Beethoven

  • Mass in C
  • Choral Symphony

  Berlioz

  • L’Enfance du Christ (all bass/baritone roles)

  Blow

  • God spake sometime in visions

  Blake

  • Benedictus

  Brahms

  • Liebeslieder Waltzes
  • Requiem

  Britten

  • Cantata Misericordium

  Burgon

  • The fall of Lucifer

  Carissimi

  • Jephte

  Charpentier

  • Caecilia Virgo
  • Elevation
  • Mass
  • Te Deum

  Dvorak

  • Mass in D
  • Requiem
  • Stabat Mater
  • Te Deum

  Dyson

  • Canterbury Pilgrims

  Elgar

  • Apostles
  • Dream of Gerontius
  • The Kingdom

  Faure

  • Requiem

  Finzi

  • In terra pax
  • Let us garlands bring
  • Lo the full final sacrifice

  Grieg

  • Four Psalms

  Grier

  • Around the curve of the world

  Handel

  • Acis and Galatea
  • Alexander’s Feast
  • Apollo et Dafne
  • Dixit Dominus
  • Esther
  • Israel in Egypt
  • Judas Maccabeus
  • Messiah
  • Samson
  • Sing unto the Lord
  • Utrecht Te Deum

  Haydn

  • Creation
  • Harmony Mass
  • Heilige Messe
  • Maria Therese Mass
  • Nelson Mass
  • Pauken Mass
  • St Nicholas Mass
  • Seasons

  Howells

  • Requiem

  Janacek

  • Glagolitic Mass
  • Unvollendete Messe

  Joubert

  • The Magus

  Kodaly

  • Te Deum

  Maunder

  • Olivet to Calvary

  Mendelssohn

  • Elijah
  • Walpurgisnacht

  Mozart

  • Missa Brevis
  • Mass in C Minor
  • Mass in C
  • Regina Coeli
  • Requiem Vespers

  Monteverdi

  • Vespers
  • Book IV Madrigals

  Purcell

  • In guilty night
  • Ode to St Cecilia
  • Come ye sons of art

  Anthony Powers

  • Air and Angels

  Orff

  • Carmina Burana

  Puccini

  • Messe di Gloria

  Rameau

  • In convertendo
  • Thetis

  Rossini

  • Stabat Mater
  • Petite Messe Solenelle

  Stainer

  • Crucifixion

  Schütz

  • Christmas Story

  Stravinsky

  • Canticum Sacrum

  Tippett

  • A child of our time

  Vaughan Williams

  • Benedicite
  • Dona nobis pacem
  • Sancta Civitas
  • Fantasia on Christmas Carols
  • 5 Mystical Songs

  Walton

  • Belshazzar’s Feast

  Matthew Brook Opera Repertoire

  Bernstein

  • A Quiet Place (Young Sam)

  Bizet

  • Carmen (Zuniga)

  Britten

  • Albert Herring (Vicar)
  • Noye’s Fludde (Noye)
  • Peter Grimes (Ned Keene)

  Handel

  • Acis and Galatea (Polyphemus)
  • Ariodante (Il Re)
  • Apollo et Dafne (Apollo)
  • Tolomeo (Eraspe)

  Janáček

  • Jenufa (Starek) (Mayor)

  Menotti

  • Amahl and the Night Visitors (Melchior)

  Monteverdi

  • L'incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca)

  Mozart

  • Don Giovanni (Leporello)
  • Le nozze di Figaro (Figaro)
  • Die Zauberflöte (Papageno)

  Purcell

  • Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas)
  • The Indian Queen (Ismeron)

  Puccini

  • Tosca (Sacristan)

  Rameau

  • Castor et Pollux (Jupiter)

  Sullivan

  • Trial by Jury (Counsel)
  • Ivanhoe (Friar Tuck)

  Tchaikovsky

  • Eugene Onegin (Onegin) (Zaretsky)

  Vaughan Williams

  • The Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan) (Lord Hategood) (Watchful)(Obstinate) and (First Shepherd)

  Walton

  • Troilus and Cressida (Antenor, Calkas)

  Weber

  • Der Freischütz (Kuno)

• Photos

  • 
    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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  • 
    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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  • 
    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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    Photographer credit: Richard Shymansky

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