Paul McCreesh (born 24 May 1960) 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 Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and of the Brinkburn Festival in England. In 2005

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

conferred on him the honorary degree of

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

Musical education

McCreesh began his career as a cellist and took his MusB from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

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 The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

début in 1992: the second part of the concert was "Music for the Coronation of a Doge, 27 April 1595". In recent years he has also worked with modern instrument orchestras including the DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin,

Zurich Chamber Orchestra The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Zürcher Kammerorchester; ZKO, German abbreviation) is a Swiss chamber orchestra based in Zurich. The ZKO's principal concert venue in Zurich is the Tonhalle. The ZKO also performs in Zurich at the Schauspielhaus Zü ...

, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris,

Detroit Symphony Orchestra The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music d ...

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Em ...

, Gothenburg Symphony, Sinfónica de Euskadi, Stockholm Philharmonic and Beethovenhalle Bonn, the

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (NedPhO; nl, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest) is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Amsterdam. History The NedPhO was formed in 1985 from the merger of three orchestras: the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestr ...

and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma.

Opera

McCreesh has conducted

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

's ''

Jephtha Jephthah (pronounced ; he, יִפְתָּח, ''Yīftāḥ''), appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, ...

'' for

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

and

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

's '' Orfeo ed Euridice'', as well as

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...

'' for

Royal Danish Opera The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first ser ...

and, for

Komische Oper Berlin The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces opera, operetta and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, just a few steps from Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, a ...

, a new David Alden staging of Handel's ''

Alcina ''Alcina'' ( HWV 34) is a 1735 opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after during his travels in Italy. P ...

''. 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 Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

. In 2011 he established Winged Lion, an independent label, which is a subsidiary of

Signum Records Signum Records, also known as Signum Classics, is a classical musical record label in the UK founded in 1997. The label began with a project to make the first recording of the complete works of Thomas Tallis. The artists for the Tallis recordin ...

Reconstructions

McCreesh is noted for his "liturgical reconstructions" in which music is presented in the context of a specific

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

with appropriate background sounds such as bell-ringing. The

Gramophone Award The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and refer ...

winning album "Venetian Coronation" (released on

Virgin Classics Virgin Classics was a record label founded in 1988 as part of Richard Branson's Virgin Records. The unit, along with EMI Classics, was acquired by Universal Music in 2012 as part of the takeover of the EMI Group, however the terms of the Europea ...

in 1990) represented a breakthrough for the Gabrieli Consort and Players. A new version of this musical reconstruction of the coronation of

Marino Grimani Marino Grimani (c.1489–1546) was an Italian Cardinal and papal legate. He was from an aristocratic Venetian family. He was elected bishop of Ceneda in 1508, when he was under age. He was patriarch of Aquileia in 1517. He was created Cardin ...

was released in 2012 on Winged Lion. "Music for the Duke of Lerma" is a musical reconstruction featuring Spanish sacred music associated with

Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma, 5th Marquess of Denia, 1st Count of Ampudia (1552/1553 – 17 May 1625), was a favourite of Philip III of Spain, the first of the ''validos'' ('most worthy') through whom the later H ...

. It was released on DG's Archiv label.

Opera

In 2020 McCreesh's recording of Purcell's

semi-opera The terms "semi-opera", "dramatic opera" and "English opera" were all applied to Restoration entertainments that combined spoken plays with masque-like episodes employing singing and dancing characters. They usually included machines in the manne ...

''King Arthur'' was judged best recording of the year by ''

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. History The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC was the original owner and publisher toget ...

''.

References

External links

Paul McCreesh's management website (Rayfield Allied)

The Gabrieli Consort & PlayersThe Monteverdi violins
Info about the Gabrielis' replica Baroque violins * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCreesh, Paul English choral conductors British male conductors (music) 1960 births Living people British performers of early music 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians