Endorsements for New Recording I WATCH YOU SLEEP 

My heartfelt thanks to Scott Dunn and Claire Martin for enriching the world with this rapturous musical triumph.  The songs are impeccably chosen, beautifully sung by Claire, with flourishes of subtlety and passion, but what makes the whole thing a rare and heart-stopping work of purity and nuance are Dunn’s arrangements.  Every time I hear them I learn and discover something new.  It’s like musical interpretations of Stanislavski’s method acting, bar by bar….I really feel inadequate as I search for ways to describe how I feel about them. I could go on feebly trying, but all I want to do is listen again.  In a world drowning in mediocrity, this revealing and heartbreaking album raises the bar to new heights of audio ecstasy.  

Rex Reed May 25, 2023

Of course I’m partial towards anything to do with Richard Rodney Bennett. – the man or his music. In this this glorious album we have both. The choice of tracks and Scott Dunn’s beautiful arrangements capture RRB’s musical fondness and generosity as well as his consummate skills. It feels warmly personal – but a brilliantly executed collection of songs – and Claire Martin’s delivery of them is sublime. I’ll spend many hours with this – a rare treat.

George Fenton, March 2, 2023

From the opening bars of this album I feel the love that has gone into every detail of the music from the beautiful recording by Joshua Blair, to the sensitive playing by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Each song is brought to life by Scott Dunn’s extraordinarily sublime orchestration, full of tenderness and gorgeous colouration. Claire Martin sings like a dream, the warmth of her tone combining effortlessly with the orchestra. It is certainly a very special tribute to Richard Rodney Bennett. 

Rachel Portman, December 22, 2022

This recording is treasurable, with superb musicianship and a timeless sensibility. Claire Martin and Scott Dunn have not only lovingly preserved Richard Rodney Bennettt’s canon but in the process have given us the joy of discovering some songs we might never have heard otherwise, and that would have been a great loss!

Michael Feinstein, December 19, 2022 

Scott Dunn and Claire Martin have bared their hearts and souls in I WATCH YOU SLEEP…a moving and nuanced tribute to Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and his singular relationship with the world of popular song.

Bill Charlap, December 14, 2022

Selected Review Quotes

As conductor:

“Jacaranda, the new music series, devoted most of its first program of the season to Glass, including a rare performance of his monumental “Another Look at Harmony, Part 4”. Written for a small chorus and organ, the score — which was completed in 1976 and is something of a road map for the contemporaneous “Einstein on the Beach” — lasted 54 minutes in a luxuriantly measured performance. A chorus of 28 beautifully blended voices was backed by a reverberant church organ…….Scott Dunn conducted almost as if he were in the trance of sacred Bruckner. The final, ecstatic section was pure rapture. Performing a block from the beach, Jacaranda calls its series “music at the edge.” The hard Glass edge was here gone, replaced by sonic succulence and at times the slow tempos provoked a near erotic moaning from the chorus. That’s not a complaint, just an acknowledgment of different strokes for different folks.”
The Los Angeles Times

“The pinnacle-and perhaps of the festival-was a wonderful performance of the Haydn piano concerto in D major led by Scott Dunn from the piano……he is a conductor of great promise, a pianist of note, and a sensitive and intelligent artist. All of the elements (of the concerto) came together to give the audience an experience closer to heaven than most of us will get in this lifetime……I cannot praise Mr. Dunn’s conducting too highly. …. I expect to hear more in the future about this fine performer”
The East Hampton Star

“(At Vox) credit goes to the accomplished conductor… Scott Dunn..”
The New York Times

As pianist:

“gifted indeed – an abundance of technique and musicality. Clearly born to play the piano….”
Los Angeles Times

“Pianist Scott Dunn, associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Opera, was suave, masterly, insouciant, nostalgic and exuberant in the opening set of four works by Joplin (Solace, a Mexican Serenade, Paragon Rag, Bethena, a Concert Waltz and Maple Leaf Rag”) …(and he) was absolutely riveting in meeting the infernal rhythmic and expressive demands of Rzewski’s pro-labor “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.”
Los Angeles Times

“In a time when we are beset with young emergent performers of limited repertory delivered with unlimited flamboyance, the splendid pianist Scott Dunn’s varied and visionary program was remarkable……”
LA Weekly

” Among the highpoints (of the Bernstein song night at Ojai) were the impeccable piano of Scott Dunn”
The Wall Street Journal

” It was in fact the piano – so expressively played by Scott Dunn – that set out and sustained each song’s compass (in the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Another Sleep)”
The New York Times

“Underpinning all this was the superbly nuanced, technically brilliant pianism of Scott Dunn.”
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“Mr. Dunn’s performance was electrifying…Not every good pianist can be a good accompanist. Scott Dunn is a superb pianist and he was extraordinary in his phrase by phrase attentiveness and his clear understanding of the singer’s art.”
The Southampton Press

Personal Endorsements

“a remarkable and versatile conductor and pianist” – Lukas Foss

“…Scott Dunn is marvelously sensitive, organized, collegial and committed. He mastered the intricacies and rhythmic difficulties (of my opera Lysistrata) seemingly at sight.” – Mark Adamo

“a singular and valuable musician” – Ned Rorem

“A truly remarkable command of the keyboard” – Elliott Carter

“FORMIDABLE!” – Nicholas Slonimsky