Paul McCreesh

Paul McCreesh (born 24 May 1960)[1] is an English conductor.

Paul McCreesh is the founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players. With them he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world. He has been the artistic director of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wrocław, Poland and of the Brinkburn Festival in England.

In 2005 Loughborough University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Musical education

McCreesh began his career as a cellist and took his MusB from the University of Manchester in 1981.

Repertoire and performance

Paul McCreesh made his name in the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Gabrieli Consort was founded in 1982 and as of 2020 is still active. McCreesh and the Gabrielis made a successful Proms début in 1992: the second part of the concert was "Music for the Coronation of a Doge, 27 April 1595".[2]

In recent years he has also worked with modern instrument orchestras including the DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Sinfónica de Euskadi, Stockholm Philharmonic and Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma.

Opera

McCreesh has conducted Handel's Jephtha for Welsh National Opera and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, as well as Mozart's The Magic Flute for Royal Danish Opera and, for Komische Oper Berlin, a new David Alden staging of Handel's Alcina. He has also conducted Handel's Rodelinda at the Beaune Festival and at the Brinkburn Festival, which he founded.

Recordings

From 1993 Paul McCreesh built a large discography for Deutsche Grammophon. In 2011 he established Winged Lion, an independent label, which is a subsidiary of Signum Records.

Reconstructions

McCreesh is noted for his "liturgical reconstructions" in which music is presented in the context of a specific liturgy with appropriate background sounds such as bell-ringing.[3] The Gramophone Award winning album "Venetian Coronation" (released on Virgin Classics in 1990) represented a breakthrough for the Gabrieli Consort and Players. A new version of this musical reconstruction of the coronation of Marino Grimani was released in 2012 on Winged Lion.[4][5]

"Music for the Duke of Lerma" is a musical reconstruction featuring Spanish sacred music associated with the Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma. It was released on DG's Archiv label.[6]

Opera

In 2020 McCreesh's recording of Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur was judged best recording of the year by BBC Music Magazine.[7]

References
  1. "Birthdays today". The Telegraph. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2014. Mr Paul McCreesh, founder, director and conductor, Gabrieli Consort and Players, 53
  2. "30 July 1992. Royal Albert Hall". Proms performance archive. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. Picard, Anna (23 September 2012). "Album: Gabrieli Consort & Players, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Winged Lion)". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  4. Rogers, Graham (2012). "Venetian Coronation". BBC. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  5. Gill, Andy (June 2012). "Album: Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort & Players A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Signum)". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  6. Clements, Andrew (22 November 2002). "Music for the Duke of Lerma". Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  7. "The winners of the BBC Music Magazine Awards". BBC Music Magazine. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
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