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McMaestro
. an
appreciation of Paul
McCreesh
by progabrieli
a
conductor of genius
Michael Tanner, The
Spectator
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 news |
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The Monteverdi violins The Gabrieli Players have commissioned two very special replica Baroque violins. Go here to read about them. Next recording Haydn's Creation - March 2008  2 DGG page "Paul McCreesh's performance with his Gabrieli Consort and Players was extraordinary. [...] McCreesh's upcoming studio recording is something anyone who has ever doubted this piece should listen out for" -The Guardian Latest recording The Road to Paradise
 CD 477 660 DGG mini-site HERE "As always, the Gabrieli Consort's singing is of the highest quality and the recording is impeccable." - Financial Times Performance |
biography |
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 His interests extending beyond early music, Paul McCreesh also works regularly with modern instrument orchestras. Recently, he has conducted the DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Sinfónica de Euskadi, Stockholm Philharmonic and Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Netherlands Philharmonic and Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma. Increasingly busy in the opera house, in 2003 McCreesh returned to Welsh National Opera for a new staging of Handel’s Jephtha, following the production of Gluck's Orphée & Eurydice with the same company in autumn 2000, both of which received considerable critical acclaim. This was immediately followed by débuts at Royal Danish Opera, where he was involved in a highly successful production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, and at Komische Oper Berlin where he conducted a new David Alden staging of Handel’s Alcina which he will revive next season and also take to the Bergen Festival. Current projects with the Gabrieli Consort and Players encompass a great range, from the liturgical reconstructions of the sacred music of the Italian Renaissance for which they originally became known, to performances and a recording of the Mozart C Minor Mass with Camilla Tilling and Sarah Connolly. Following the tremendous success of their recent recording of Handel's Saul with Andreas Scholl – the Times called it 'one of the most roundly satisfying Handel oratorio performances for some time' – recordings shortly due for release include works by Biber recorded as part of the Biber tercentenary. In 2005 the University of Loughborough, UK, conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, on Paul McCreesh. At the ceremony, the University's Public Orator said: 'Describing himself as “tough and
sometimes exasperating” Paul predicts that scholars with whom he now
collaborates “will go straight to heaven after the frustration of
working with me - I want complete control over the artistic planning”.
Control freak he may be, but this draws its impetus from an utter
conviction that every composer is unique and every composition deserves
deep thought and analysis. We must be thankful for this; it has given
us a stream of performances and recordings which are original,
exhilarating and musically ravishing. A conductor of genius? Most certainly. An
interpreter of genius? Yes, that too.'
Born 24 May 1960 in London, Paul McCreesh married soprano Susan Hemington Jones in 1983. They have a son and a daughter. In Who's Who, Paul McCreesh lists his recreations as the countryside, walking and children. |
time line |
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Paul McCreesh founds the Gabrieli
Consort and
Players.
1987 1993 Archiv Produktion
contract 1994
1997
Handel's Solomon at
London's Proms, to great acclaim. 1999 Handel's Theodora on tour
including débuts at Amsterdam's
Concertgebouw
and Birmingham's Symphony Hall. For the Bach Year 2000, European tour of the Easter
Oratorio. 2000/01 St
Matthew
Passion in the Netherlands and on Easter Sunday at London's
Barbican Hall. 2001/02
2006 Celebrations begin for the silver jubilee of the founding of
the Gabrielis.
Hear Paul McCreesh talking about it to James Jolly at the DGG website. Paul McCreesh appointed director of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. Handel's Rodelinda - Beaune and Brinkburn Haydn's Creation - European tour Road to Paradise' - European tour - residency at Festival de la Chaise Dieu
2007 Wratislava Cantans Festival
A Spotless Rose: Palestrina, Tallis, Górecki Glanert/Brahms: Vier Präludien und Ernste Gesänge (2004/2005) Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major
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the singers |
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Members of the
Consort can vary from one performance to another,
but regulars include: Soprano Rosie Blunt, Tessa
Bonner, Alicia Carroll, Grace Davidson, Sally Dunkley,
Helen
Groves, Carol Hall, Susan
Hemington Jones, Kirsty Hopkins,
Rebecca Outram, Helen Parker, Elin Manahan Thomas Alto
Lucy
Ballard, Mark
Chambers, David
Clegg, Kate Cook, Patrick
Craig,
Alexandra Gibson, Caris Jones, Tim Massa, William Missin, Caroline Trevor Tom Phillips, George Pooley, Roy Rashbrook, Angus
Smith,
Warren
Trevelyan
Jones, Will Unwin, Matthew
Vine, Simon Wall
Andrew
Rupp, Richard Savage, Francis Steele
Guest
soloists, some of whom who also sometimes perform as consort
singers,
have included: Julia
Gooding, Susan
Gritton, Alison
Hagley, Mhairi
Lawson,
Kimberley McCord, Ann Monoyios, Renata Pokupić, Dorothea Röschmann, Carolyn Sampson, Camilla Tilling, Gillian Webster, Deborah York Alto / contralto
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Brinkburn Festival |
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In 1994, Paul McCreesh founded, and he continues to direct, the Brinkburn Festival. Over two weekends in summer each year, a series of concerts of international standard is held at Brinkburn Priory, a beautiful 12th century building on the River Coquet, near Rothbury in Northumberland. The first weekend is usually early music, the second a mixed repertoire. ) Brinkburn is a showcase for the work of the Gabrielis and many guest ensembles, as part of a rich education programme featuring young musicians of all ages. Click here to read more about Brinkburn at the (independent) blog of the Schola Gregoriana of Northumbria who sing regularly in the Abbey. |
calendar |
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Visit the Deutsche Grammophon site for a list of Paul McCreesh's future engagements. Visit the Gabrielis' website for details of the ensemble's future engagements. |
travel |
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Paul McCreesh and the Gabrielis give occasional concerts to small, private audiences in beautiful settings across Europe, under the auspices of Martin Randall Tours. |
London residency |
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The Gabrieli Consort and Players are resident at London's historic Christ Church, Spitalfields, Nicholas Hawksmoor's newly-restored (now deconsecrated) Baroque masterpiece which received prestigious architectural awards when it reopened in 2004. )
'This is one of the
most impressive pieces of architecture in London' The concert programme is available at the Gabrielis' website. Tickets for most concerts are via London's Barbican Centre. Spitalfields Festival website |
media |
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Paul McCreesh gave a long interview to Brian Robins for issue 29 of Goldberg in 2004. Click here to read the article online. There is a selection of reviews at Intermusica and more at the Deutsche Grammophon website. Click on: artists / Paul McCreesh / Press. |
audio and video |
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There is a good range of clips on the Deutsche Grammophon website. Click on: artists / Paul McCreesh / Multimedia. |
management |
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Paul McCreesh's management company is Intermusica Artists' Management. |
support |
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The Gabrielis receive no public subsidy. If you would like to help them to continue their work by becoming a Friend of the Gabrieli Trust, please click here to contact their development manager, Victoria Hayes. |
contacts |
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Click here to contact Paul McCreesh's personal manager, Jessica Ford. Click here to contact the general manager of the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Olé Baekhoej. |
message board |
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This site has a message board. Click here to go there. |
our reviews |
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We will publish reviews on this site. Click here to visit our reviews page. |
links |
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Bach Cantatas website The Monteverdi violins |
about this site |
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This tribute to Paul McCreesh does not represent him or any of his associates. We acknowledge material from the Gabrieli, Intermusica and DGG websites, and the work of all photographers including Sheila Rock and David Calle whose work you can see here. The music you hear is the end of Handel's mighty Saul, from Paul McCreesh's acclaimed 2004 recording, here to tempt you into buying the CD set. Aw, go on - you know you want to!  Watch the video
clip of the Saul recording
session
and see Paul McCreesh talking about Saul,
on the Deutsche
Grammophon
website. If you own copyright in any of the material we have used and object to our using it, please contact us and we will remove it without argument or delay. The site is optimised for a Windows screen set to 1280 x 1024 and for IE6+. Some graphic features may not be visible under other operating systems. |
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