Paul McCreesh

“Step into Victorian Birmingham with Paul McCreesh’s “authentic” recording of Mendelssohn’s epic Old Testament oratorio...The thumping grandeur of the big choruses is magnificent. But against that must be placed McCreesh’s tendency to insert wallowing rallentandos before every transition, and fuzzy choral diction.” The Times, 1st September 2012 ***

“the choral singing is a marvel.” Sunday Times, 2nd September 2012

“one of the striking aspects of the performance is the way that Paul McCreesh so naturally places the great set pieces within the context of a multifaceted expressive whole...familiar moments in Elijah sound newly minted here, McCreesh approaching them with polished, fluent phrasing and using the period instruments of his orchestra to underpin emphases and to add vibrant colour.” The Telegraph, 15th September 2012

“McCreesh here totally re-imagines it: the big choruses are transparent as well as massively impressive...and there is no danger of religiosity in the fresh-voiced solos of Rosemary Joshua, Sarah Connolly and Simon Keenlyside...In all, a spectacularly successful reinvention of the British choral tradition.” The Observer, 23rd September 2012

“Connolly sings with mellifluous tone and Simon Keenlyside is an Elijah of spirit and intelligence: he may not have the sheer weight of a Bryn Terfel, but he's alive to every shift of meaning and his diction is, as ever, impeccable. The gut strings, unimpeded by vibrato, bring splendid urgency to the texture” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ****

“Miraculously, McCreesh succeeds in relating Elijah’s sound world to Mendelssohn’s more familiar, lighter-sounding works while never underplaying the performance’s staggering heft. The combined choirs produce a sonority which has to be heard to be believed. The doomy, dramatic numbers are simply terrifying...McCreesh’s Berlioz disc was a highlight of 2011; this Elijah is even better. Flawless, in other words.” The Arts Desk, 6th October 2012

“There’s a definite histrionic side to the role and Keenlyside doesn’t short-change us but when listening to him I was reminded again and again what a fine lieder singer he is...[Ward is] clear and accurate and shows excellent breath control. Furthermore, his pitching is spot-on...The orchestral playing is superb...This is a marvellous recording of Elijah...Anyone who cares about this fine work should try to hear it.” MusicWeb International, October 2012

“unashamedly committed and thoroughly dramatic…this a reading to make one hear Mendelssohn’s masterpiece anew…The recording is beautifully presented in an exquisitely designed ‘book format’” Choir & Organ, November/December 2012

“The sound is massive when required, but the articulation is never unwieldy and there is delicacy too … [the organ is] a splendid beast and, except in one instance, you would never know that it was dubbed on electronically...Sarah Connolly and Rosemary Joshua are both excellent. From the crib of ‘Death and the Maiden’ at the opening to the final ‘Amen’, this is a triumph.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“It is a veritable feast of early renaissance music, recorded at Douai Abbey in Berkshire...where the acoustics are ideal. Splendid book-style production, with evocative b&w photos. Recommended with enthusiasm.” Musical Pointers

“The occasional swish of incense dispersal or hand bell chimes are the only interior sound effects, enhancing the ceremonial atmosphere without impinging on the liturgical plainchant, florid organ voluntaries, majestic trumpet fanfares, opulent brass canzonas, and rich choral singing...An especial aural delight is the sumptuously rich lower brass of Andrea Gabrieli's Sanctus & Benedictus.” bbc.co.uk, 8th June 2012

“Even if you own the classic Virgin disc, this new version is a must-buy.” Sunday Times, 17th June 2012

“McCreesh's feel for the shifting colours of polychoral music was always firm but he finds extra variety here with greater use of solo voices - most memorably in Andrea's O sacrum convivium. The many who treasure that first recording should feel no need to discard it; but this second, with its new wisdoms and refinements, certainly has its place.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“this is a marvellously handled recording conjuring up a 'live' event that is greatly aided by the opening bell-ringing and the ethereal spacious surround of the chanting. Musically the stars of the show are the works composed by the Gabrielis, uncle and son...Giovanni's Omnes gentes ends the show in magisterial form” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 *****

“This is a more cinematic affair [than the first 'Venetian Coronation'], frosted with ambient sound as the bells ring out from St Mark’s Basilica. Shawms join the arsenal of natural brass. Toccatas and intonazione from four organs describe the gilded chapels, while the mass is sung with solo voices and a suave consort of cornetts and sackbutts. Pitch perfect.” The Independent, 23rd September 2012 *****

“This is a concept album, a sequence of purgative music on the theme of death by a wide range of British composers from the English Renaissance to today.” Sunday Times, 11th March 2012

“The singing is immaculate...MacMillan's music is as technically demanding as it is emotionally powerful and it is a a wonder that these exceptional young singers make it all sound so effortless.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2012 *****

“For me, the highlight is Herbert Howells’s Requiem, grief seeping from every cadence. It’s beautifully sung by Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli Consort in an acoustic that sounds aptly like a tomb but is, in fact, Ely Cathedral.” The Times, 17th March 2012 ****

“Any disc subtitled 'Music of Mourning & Consolation' is not going to be a bundle of laughs. But Paul McCreesh has devised such a satisfying programme of mostly short a cappella pieces that the effect is the reverse of depressing.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“there are numerous indications of the elevated artistry Paul McCreesh and the 22 singers of his Gabrieli Consort bring to this beautifully planned and executed programme...There's also much emotion in the performances. McCreesh's choice of sopranos who either have little vibrato or can eliminate it when requested has a palpable impact...This is a superlative, unmissable issue.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 *****

“as fine an account as I have ever heard...overwhelming in the great apocalyptic tuttis, but at the same time beautifully clear in detail, with a lovely bloom on the individual choral and instrumental lines of this paradoxically intimate work...[McCreesh] has a profound understanding of the score and has inspired his Anglo-Polish forces, above all the superb chorus, to feel it with him and take it to their hearts.” Sunday Times, 2nd October 2011

“McCreesh provides pretty much the enormous forces Berlioz demands...But he recognises that Berlioz sought more than mere noisy grandeur, and the results are fascinating. McCreesh's pace is fairly slow and weighty, but it seldom feels slack. In the reverberant acoustic of Mary Magdalene, Wroclaw, textures remain open....Even those used to the Colin Davis or Charles Munch tradition may find its airy beauties compelling.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 *****

“I’d turn to this performance most for its gentler qualities: like the loveliness of the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir; or the quiet corners of the final sections, when rest eternal beckons and the instruments’ individual colours rise to the fore. Robert Murray, the tenor soloist, wafts down nicely from on high.” The Times, 14th October 2011 ***

“an interpretation that is impressive not merely by dint of the music’s more monumental statements or its ample sonorities, but also through the subtlety of expression that Paul McCreesh elicits from the massive forces required to perform it.” The Telegraph, 13th October 2011 *****

“The result is clear-textured and austere, even where the decibel count is extreme in the Dies Irae...McCreesh keeps it all on a tight rein, but the chief glory is the choral singing, superb in its fervour and weight, with the difficult tenor line notably strong and ecstatic.” The Guardian, 13th October 2011 ****

“Berlioz's 1837 Grande Messe has rarely sounded so thrilling or transparent...the muted plangency and expressivity of [McCreesh's] female semi-chorus in the "Sanctus" is every bit as impactful as the rolling waves of timpani in the "Tuba Mirum", while the snaking coils of strings have an otherworldly, Gothic flavour.” The Independent on Sunday, 23rd October 2011

“McCreesh has achieved something quite out of the ordinary in this performance...The impact is overwhelming, not merely in the full-throated eruptions...The concept of Berlioz's Requiem Mass may embrace a certain element of grandiosity but, listening to this performance, it is impossible to forget that Berlioz was a supreme orchestrator and a composer with a broad dramatic talent.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“terrific singing and an uncommonly corporate involvement in the ritual of music-making” Classic FM Magazine, December 2011 *****

“well recorded in a suitably reverberant acoustic, it sounds stunning...this is a definitive recording of a staggering piece.” The Arts Desk, 12th November 2011

“A triumph of performance and scholarship” MusicWeb International, May 2012

“[The Allegri] is one of the highlights, the 1970 recording by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge achieving an almost weightless sublimity, particularly in the Sanctus. The Taverner Consort of the 1980s offers similarly impressive interpretations of Giovanni Gabrieli's polychoral pieces” The Independent, 25th November 2011

“It is splendid to hear a singer of abundant personality leaping into the suicide scene from Tamerlano with such dramatic authority. Listening to Villazón's lively rendition of Bajazet's "Ciel e terra armi di sdegno", I find myself eager to see him sing the role on stage. ...the enthusiasm seems infectious: McCreesh's Gabrieli Players have rarely sounded better and more dramatically attuned in this repertoire. This disc is zany in some ways, but offers fine rewards.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“Villazón sings everything with such intensity and fire that you surrender to him. His performance of Ariodante's Scherza Infida is among the most beautiful and keenly felt on disc. If he'd been around in the 18th century, Handel would probably have adored him.” The Guardian, 10th April 2009 ****

“Villazón’s first number, one of three from Tamerlano, blasts us with a degree of bravura and sunshine rarely encountered among the regular male Baroque singers…” The Times, 20th March 2009 ***

“Time and again in this profoundly sentient collection of Marian compositions the Gabrieli Consort effectively bypass the whole self-orientated notion of 'performance', drawing the listener into what, in many of these pieces, is essentially a process of prayer through music. Not all is meditatively reverential, however... James MacMillan's superbly dramatic Seinte Mari Moder Milde is in places fiercely, burningly imprecatory in its impact. It's magnificently sung here by the Gabrieli Consort, whom Paul McCreesh directs with passion and dedication...” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 *****

“Marian worship reaches giddy heights of bliss in this gloriously sung survey. There can be nothing but praise for the breathtaking assurance and responsiveness of McCreesh's singers throughout… Emanating from the magically apt surroundings of Ely Cathedral's Lady Chapel, the sound is as atmospheric and voluptuous as can be imagined...” Gramophone Magazine, March 2009

“Sung throughout with sensitivity to style, this themed programme reveals the reverence and the rapture the Virgin Mary has inspired in music over the centuries.” The Telegraph, 23rd February 2009

“Two years ago Paul McCreesh and his choir released a beautifully conceived album on the theme of pilgrimage, interleaving Tudor polyphony with 20th-century British a cappella settings. Now he and the Gabrieli Consort have attempted the same thing using music composed in honour of the Virgin Mary, though this time they have cast their historical net far wider. As before, Renaissance masterpieces provide the spine. But this time a range of traditions is represented; there is an Ave Maria by Josquin, and a motet by his contemporary Jean Mouton, as well as Palestrina's monumental Stabat Mater and some anonymous pieces. The modern settings of Marian texts are even more disparate. John Tavener and Giles Swayne rub shoulders with Herbert Howells and Thomas Adès, and the disc ends with James MacMillan, Grieg, Bax and Gorecki. Choral forces vary from eight singers to over 30, and the recorded sound from Ely Cathedral is consistently glorious; but the musical mixture seems just a bit too eclectic.” The Guardian, 20th February 2009 ***

“'My intention was to create a collection of private meditations highlighting the key events of Mary's life,' writes Paul McCreesh, 'Like the Book ofHours, it would consist of works intended for metaphysical reflection: for revealing and and commenting on the ineffable.' It's a tremendously rewarding sequence, some 13 items in all spanning no fewer than 600 years, and so cannily programmed that temporal and stylistic boundaries shift and sometimes evaporate altogether: prepare to marvel at the way Josquin's Ave Maria,Virgo serena follows on so naturally from Sir John Tavener's ravishing A Hymn to the Mother of God.
Tavener is one of five living figures represented, the contributions by Giles Swayne, Thomas Adès and James MacMillan adding a not unwelcome element of astringency to the mix and contrasting boldly with the transcendent diatonic radiance of Górecki's Totus tuus.
There can be nothing but praise for the breathtaking assurance and responsiveness of McCreesh's singers throughout.
Emanating from the magically apt surroundings of Ely Cathedral's Lady Chapel, the sound is as atmospheric and voluptuous as can be imagined, though the formidable resonance means that the words are not always ideally clear. But that's about the only grumble, for this is indeed a glorious CD.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The sheer magnificence of the choruses that provide the oratorio's structural pillars has rarely been so effectively realised on disc. McCreesh also has an exceptional set of soloists. The results are exceptional; overtaking even John Eliot Gardiner's striking version on the same label.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 *****

“While yielding to none in joyous exhilaration, McCreesh gives full value to the mystery and awe of creation. Unlike most period practitioners, he often favours broad tempos, whether in a wonderfully creepy evocation of the primeval slime in "Chaos" or the most majestic of sunrises... If you want a Creation in English, this new version - sonically thrilling, marvellously sung and characterised - sweeps the field.” The Telegraph, March 2008

“In all the choruses McCreesh's pacing - eager but never hectic - and rhythmic energy are wonderfully inspiriting. He is acutely responsive, too, to the work's mystery and awe… The less consistently cast Rattle recording sometimes generates more fun. but for a Creation in English, this new version - exhilarating, poetic and marvellously sung - becomes the prime recommendation.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“ceived The Creation as the first bilingual oratorio and would surely have been perplexed that Anglophone record-buyers seem to prefer the work in German. The main problem, of course, is that the Baron's command of English failed to match his self-confidence, prompting many attempts to improve on the original.
On this new recording, Paul McCreesh's emendations are less radical than those on the two other available versions in English (from Simon Rattle and Robert Shaw), but on the whole more successful, retaining all the Miltoninspired quaintness of van Swieten's text while rectifying his mistranslations and clumsy Germanic word order.
Language apart, McCreesh's recording differs from its period competitors in scale: where they typically use a smallish professional choir and an orchestra of around 50, McCreesh pits a 113- strong band against a chorus of similar numbers.
Abetted by the glowing, spacious acoustics of Watford Town Hall, the big celebratory choruses make a more powerful impact than in any of the rival period versions. Occasionally – say in the rollicking fugue in 'Awake the harp', here done at a constant fortissimo – one would have welcomed more nuanced dynamics. But there is no denying the incandescence of the climaxes to 'The heavens are telling' and the final 'Praise the Lord, uplift your voices'.
In all the choruses McCreesh's pacing – eager but never hectic – and rhythmic energy are wonderfully inspiriting. He is acutely responsive, too, to the work's mystery and awe, daring, and vindicating, slower-than-usual tempi for 'Chaos' (launched by the most apocalyptic of timpani rolls), the Sunrise and the first morning in Paradise, celestially evoked by the Gabrieli's trio of flutes. A pity, though, that he allows the cannonfire timpani to pre-empt Haydn's cosmic blaze at 'light'.
McCreesh's trump card is his solo team, superb both individually and as an exceptionally sensitive ensemble. Has the trio near the close of Part 2, 'On thee each living soul awaits', ever been sung with such radiant inwardness. Other highlights include Sandrine Piau's graceful, smiling 'With verdure clad', here a truly happy song to the spring, Mark Padmore's tender legato in Haydn's portrayal of the first woman, and Neal Davies's deep, velvet softness in 'the limpid brook' and his hieratic reverence in the sublime arioso 'Be fruitful all, and multiply'.
Peter Harvey, supple and lyrical, and Miah Persson, with a touch of sensuousness in her vernal tone, are beautifully paired as Adam and Eve.
For a Creation in English, this new version – exhilarating, poetic and marvellously sung – becomes the prime recommendation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Right from the first notes the sheer scale of the drama is apparent, you feel the full force of order emerging from chaos and light from darkness...bass Neal Davies is particularly impressive as Raphael...If you're after The Creation in English, this might just be the one to buy…and the recording captures the whole spectacle with apparent ease, which is an achievement in itself.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 18th April 2008