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Paul McCreesh, conductor

Reviews

"Gluck's Orphée & Eurydice / Welsh National Opera
"This is a dazzling debut for McCreesh ... such instinctive theatricality. In the pit, McCreesh gets WNO's orchestra to sound at times like a period-instrument band, especially in the "horrid" scurrying music of the underworld, in which the strings' cascading scales sound like leaps into the abyss, punctuated by menacing trombones and thunderous drum-rolls. The WNO chorus, excels itself with the grace and power of its singing...the most entrancing and musically thrilling account of this strangely elusive opera that I have ever seen...all told, another WNO triumph."
The Sunday Times, October 8, 2000


Handel Messiah / DG (Gabrieli Consort & Players)
McCreesh is a natural dramatist…[his] expression is candid and immediate…his is a particular type of musicanship which reaches out, quite Sargent-like in the robust swagger of "And the Glory", the grand leisurely "Amen" and almost elegiac enunciation in "Comfort ye". The energy and focused proclamation of this reading will surely win many friends…there is a consistency and rooted concentration to proceedings [which are] always thoroughly engaged.
A highly compelling reading. A Messiah for the millennium? Certainly, one of the best around.
Gramophone


Handel Theodora (Gabrieli Consort & Players)
Paul McCreesh inspired superb playing with a warmth and body to the sound not always associated with period bands.
The Times

The performance came in at just under three hours, but the time sailed by. This was thanks not least to the brisk, indeed reckless, pace at which McCreesh directed much of the faster music, which counterpointed the brash, pagan Romans against the plangent voices of Theodora and her entourage.
The Daily Telegraph

McCreesh’s conducting brings out the best in the work.
The Guardian


Handel Solomon / DG (Gabrieli Consort & Players)
At last, Handel’s sumptuous oratorio of 1748 has a recording worthy of its musical riches. The Gabrieli Consort sing Handel’s magnificent double choruses with inspirational fervour under Paul McCreesh’s thrilling direction.
The Sunday Times


Schutz Christmas Vespers / DG (Gabrieli Consort & Players)
The whole sequence is executed with the skill and flair we have come to expect from McCreesh and his assembled forces.
The Times

McCreesh brilliantly evokes a liturgical atmosphere in this vivid recording, throwing new light on the devotional purpose at the heart of its performance. An uplifting record.
The Sunday Times


Voted one of the TOP 100 Conductor’s of the 20th Century
McCreesh's great and defining gift is a startling ability to marry erudition and imagination to revelatory effect …. even greater things can be expected.
Classic CD Magazine