JessDandy

Press

• Solo Recital: "In the dark times will there be singing?"

  Wigmore Hall

  Jan 2025

  • In Shostakovich’s fitful, fragmented Six Verses for Marina Tsvetayeva, Dandy performed with such depth of tone and feeling she seemed possessed by the dissident Russian poet herself. By contrast, the French composer André Caplet’s settings of three well-known prayers ... reached for the heights, Dandy abandoning herself to their top notes like a saint in ecstasy... Messiaen’s celestial birdsong in selections from his Harawi, in which Dandy’s expertly pitched cries of “toi” (you) made the piano strings sing in sympathy.

    • Daniel Lewis, The Times
    • 21 January 2025

  • If portrayal of light, darkness and all the shades in between is your aim, then there is no finer instrument than Dandy's voice for the job, and it was a joy to hear her in a programme that allowed the unveiling of all of its colours: Not content with simple musical dexterity, Dandy demonstrated a sure command of pronunciation in all of the languages (English, French, German, Russian, Yiddish) she sang in; the icing on the talent cake was her taking over tat the piano, while Perez spoke Ginsberg's poetry over the music.

    • Barry Creasy, Music OMH
    • 21 January 2025

• Mozart Requiem with Tampere Philharmonic

  Tampere Hall

  Nov 2023

  • Among the quality voices stood out, one possible future star, alto Jess Dandy. Her voice with a refined range and a fateful weightiness.

    • Haari Hautala, Aamulehti Newspaper
    • 06 November 2023

• Handel's Samson with Academy of Ancient Music

  BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall

  Aug 2023

  • Dandy impressed with the sober, seriousness that she brought, allied to lovely dark, rich vocal tone including her fine chest register.

    • Planet Hugill
    • 25 August 2023

  • ...Jess Dandy bringing a rich, strikingly deep contralto to Micah

    • Erica Jeal, The Guardian
    • 24 August 2023

• CPE Bach Heilig

  BBC Proms: Royal Albert Hall

  Aug 2023

  • The opening arietta for alto was sung by the peerless contralto Jess Dandy, whose rich tones and wonderfully solid chest voice made for one of the best moments in the concert.

    • Barry Creasy, musicOMH
    • 06 August 2023

• [CD] Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14; Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva

  Jul 2023

  • Contralto Jess Dandy intuits and discloses the strength at the heart of the Six Poems of Marina Tsevateya, the symphony’s discmate, delivering the most opulent performance of this song cycle since Irina Bogacheva’s (latest reissue on Venezia CDVE00513). Her vocal effulgence in “To Anna Akhmatova” convinces one that, in music at least, hope can thrive in the midst of death – a surprising sentiment from the same composer whose penultimate symphony concluded with Rilke’s verses, “All-powerful is death … [it] awaits for us and thirsts for us—and weeps for us.” Perhaps Shostakovich was also aware of the poet’s more hopeful words to the young Franz Xaver Kappus: “The future stands still, but we move in infinite space.

    • Néstor Castiglione, Music Web International
    • 07 July 2023

• Bach St Matthew Passion with Dunedin Consort

  Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

  Apr 2023

  • But the ultimate showstopper was surely alto Jess Dandy’s soul-stirring aria Erbarme dich, sung with melting warmth and impassioned amplitude in liquid partnership with lead violinist Huw Daniel’s exquisite obligato solo.

    • Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx
    • 06 April 2023

  • Jess Dandy who lived up to the description in her profile in the programme; her voice was “an instrument of velvety plangent timbre” and it was marvellous, for me the best voice of the night particularly in her aria ‘Erbarme Dich’.

    • Hugh Kerr, Edinburgh Music Review

• Messiah with Academy of Ancient Music

  Barbican Centre

  Dec 2022

  • Contralto Jess Dandy brought a lovely seriousness and gravity to her performances. Dandy has a richly coloured voice and she clearly relished the opportunities to mine her strong lower register. In the name of colour, she did not hide changes of register but instead used this creatively. Her performances were characterised by a lovely well-modulated, shapely line, often enlivened by bouncing rhythms from the orchestra.

    • Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
    • 16 December 2022

• Recital with Martin Roscoe

  Wigmore Hall

  Jul 2022

  • Dandy has quite a distinctively direct, plangent tone quality to her voice, and throughout the recital I was struck by the real sculptural quality to her phrasing... Denn es gehet dem Menschen began dark and sober, serious indeed, though Dandy's intense phrasing was combined with a striking array of colours in her voice whilst the middle section was almost trenchant.... The songs were originally written for bass voice, but Dandy's tone quality and vocal style made the songs seem very fitting, and strikingly portentous.

    • Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
    • 01 August 2022

• Elgar Sea Pictures with BBC Philharmonic

  Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

  May 2022

  • Then for the big central setting of Browning’s “Sabbath Morning at Sea”, and the remainder, she brought as much passion and poetry in her singing as Elgar did to his writing.

    • Robert Beale, The Arts Desk
    • 16 May 2022

• Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / Sir John Eliot Gardiner

  Carnegie Hall

  Feb 2020

  • Jess Dandy’s commanding contralto made an impact. It’s rare enough to hear the alto line, let alone have it make you sit up and take notice.

    • Rick Perdian, Seen and Heard International
    • 28 February 2022