TO SAY the Dunedin Consort has a big season up ahead is certainly an understatement. If tackling Bach’s four major choral works plus three Handel oratorios wasn’t enough, they’ve no less than seven appearances at international festivals in the UK, Germany and Poland, a residency at the Wigmore Hall and a smorgasbord of concerts throughout Scotland. Oh and there’s the small matter of a brand new recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers coming out on Linn records in September. It’s certainly set to be quite a year.

According to Music Director John Butt, "It’s getting bigger and bigger! Festivals are obviously one of the things that give us a sort of backbone in many respects, and then we fit things around that that either chime with it or compliment it. The obvious thing is the Wigmore residency, which wanted all three of the big Bach works that we’re not doing in the summer; so that gives us a good rhythm, and also consolidates what we’ve performed a lot in the past."

The consort will perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass at the Wigmore Hall between December this year and June 2018, but not before they make their BBC Proms debut in August, their first appearance on television, with J.S. Bach’s Passion according to St. John.

Giving an up to date relevance to Bach’s 18th century Lutheran church traditions, this will be a passion "with all the trimmings". Bookended by congregational chorales, Professor Butt plans to come on stage early to prepare the audience to sing, and is currently on the lookout for someone to give a "sermon" just before the interval. Exploring the work’s sacred context in a secular setting, he does stress that the performance will not be a religious service "although people who want to treat it as such are obviously welcome to" and that the speaker will be a public figure rather than a faith leader, with David Attenborough and Philip Pullman among the possibilities.

Other UK festival appearances include opening the Queen’s Hall series at the Edinburgh International Festival with a programme based around Monteverdi and Schütz, and a return to Lammermuir Festival with Handel’s Italian oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth. Further afield, the group open their season with a performance at the Leipzig Bach Festival, and have further German dates at the Thuringia Bach Festival in Waltershausen and at the Handel Festival in Halle. Holy week sees a trip to Poland, to Krakow’s Easter early music festival Misteria Paschalia, where Butt is Director-Resident in 2018.

Though the ensemble has an increasingly international outlook, they are very much rooted in Scotland, and take great pride in their Scottish identity.

"It’s very important to fly that flag, that we are an international Scottish group, from Scotland and going across the world. It’s important that we keep that identity wherever we go."

With such an outward looking angle, I wondered how the conductor thought Britain’s impending departure from the European Union would affect their work.

"Nobody’s been able to explain any advantages yet to me – in terms of anything, but particularly music. I’ve talked to people in the pop and jazz field, and it’s pretty much the same issue across the board. You’re not wanting to spend your time filling in forms. Orchestras are continually working with European conductors and soloists, and that’s before you think about the composition of the orchestras as they are and the tours they need to raise revenue.

"I’m not suggesting that we will cease to go to Europe after Brexit, but the ease with which we have will change. Nothing is going to be easier, at least in the short term, but difficulties do sometimes bring opportunities.’

The commitment to reaching out globally, and continuing to raise and maintain an international profile won’t change, although Dunedin Consort places a very strong focus on Scottish performances which John describes as the bones of what they do, even if sometimes "the tail does wag the Scottish dog". He reveals longer term plans to become "more grounded in Scottish culture" by building an education programme tying in with schools and universities, and to return to travelling to the "far reaches" of the country, which they’ve not done for the past several years. There are also plans afoot to get more artists involved in directing groups too, to be able to spread the concerts further throughout Scotland.

There’s a healthy thread of Scottish dates running through their upcoming concerts, with performances in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness, and the consort appears to have struck a successful balance between performances abroad and at home. Though uncertainties loom, both in terms of politics and funding, Dunedin Consort has firmly established itself as a major player in the early music scene, a position which this upcoming season will surely cement.

www.dunedin-consort.org.uk