Paul McCreesh is renowned for the energy and passion of his music-making, and an interpretative insight combining ‘musicological inquisitiveness and artistic creativity’ (Gramophone). He gives performances ‘benefitting from years of living with and thinking about a work, constantly evolving his approach to it’ (Opera).
First established as the founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players, he now guest-conducts some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Verbier Festival Orchestra, NFM Orchestra, Wrocław and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is a former Principal Conductor and Artistic Director at the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon and served for six seasons as Artistic Director of the International Festival Wratislava Cantans in Wrocław, Poland. He is currently the Principal Guest Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orquestra de València.
McCreesh is passionate advocate for music education, especially amongst young people, and is actively involved in developing new educational initiatives wherever he works. In the UK, he leads Gabrieli’s ever-expanding 'Roar' project for young singers, many from challenging areas.
Few conductors rival McCreesh in their breadth of repertoire interests. He is as likely to be found conducting Purcell’s theatre works as Elgar’s symphonies or an a cappella part-song. He is particularly known for his performances of major choral works, especially Britten’s War Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons. His thirty-year recording career embraces both pioneering recordings of rarely-heard repertoire and well-known masterpieces, and includes numerous award-winning, benchmark discs; he is widely regarded as one of today’s most influential recording artists. His most recent recording, The Dream of Gerontius, won both BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone awards in the UK and a Limelight award in Australia.
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Mozart Symphonies 29 & 39
Orquesta de Valencia, April 2025
The English maestro … enlivens and encourages; he commands character, wisdom, manners, discipline, and stage presence. And so the two Mozart gems he conducted -Symphonies 29 and 39 – were performances of great vitality and flavour, with consistently lively tempos and clear, concise phrasing. Without making a point of articulation or orthodoxy, but with discernment and ideas - happier and more radiant than if stuck in a straitjacket. More than mere perfection, this was Mozart to be enjoyed and savored. Hats off, maestro!
Justo Romero, Scherzo Magazine
L’Enfance du Christ
NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, September 2024
Paul McCreesh's supple and precise conducting, always attentive to each individual and to the voices, allows him to construct this vast fresco with rare accuracy. The pious imagery, by turns tormented and violent, pastoral, doloristic, and finally edifying, is captivating, stripped of all added sugar or sweetener.
The choir and orchestra, conducted with intelligence by the excellent Paul McCreesh, and a top-class cast confirm Berlioz's European influence, served wonderfully this evening.
Yvan Beuvard, forumopera.com
Conductor Paul McCreesh . . . constructs an elegant and solid musical architecture, capable of great sensitivity during the many emotionally charged passages.
Irma Foletti, Bachtrack
The Dream of Gerontius
Signum Records, 2024
"As conductor, McCreesh is both unobtrusive and highly effective, unfussily setting appropriate tempos and masterfully binding his large forces together in a common purpose. Above all, though, he takes Gerontius seriously as music drama. Elgar himself disliked it being described as an ‘oratorio’, and large sections of McCreesh’s performance feel more like an extended operatic scena, entirely stripped of sanctimony or a trumped-up aura of religiosity. The cumulative impact is all the more moving for that. . . This is unquestionably a great recording of Gerontius, one that every Elgarian should have, and ranks high among the many important projects Gabrieli has so far undertaken in its four decades of existence."
Terry Blain, classical-music.com
“This is not just another recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Following his gargantuan recreations of early performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts, conductor Paul McCreesh has again delivered a splendid recording of special interest . . . McCreesh lays out much of the choral music with amplitude and captures a very English feeling of sanctity in this wide-ranging score, which brings Anglican chant and anthem into a fruitful embrace with Wagnerian opera.”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times
“McCreesh brings an impressive control of contrasting tempos to the polyphonic, multicolour orchestration that forms such an intrinsic part of the work. . . . The principal reason why I was moved to return to this recording numerous times is McCreesh’s differentiated response to the range of choral styles Elgar asks of in his score, and which allows the chorus to function, when required, as a truly involved ‘collective’ character . . . Most of all, [the recording]’s expressive choral and orchestral merits, to quote the words of Newman’s angel, as such that it ‘will gladden thee, bit it will pierce thee too.”
Jeremy Dibble, Gramophone
“This stunning recording burrows deep down into Elgar’s magical score . . . McCreesh steers the ship with unerring focus.”
Dan Cairns, The Times
“Throughout the oratorio, McCreesh’s orchestra makes a wonderful sound . . . Paul McCreesh conducts the work very well indeed. It’s evident that he has prepared both the orchestra and chorus thoroughly for this assignment.”
John Quinn, Music Web International
“This is a surpassingly wonderful account…McCreesh unfolds the Prelude with a subtle control of shape and dynamics, and an awareness of wind colours throughout the whole performance…this wonderful, humane performance.”
Christopher Morely, Slipped Disc
"The grand scale of Gerontius is a perfect match for Paul McCreesh, now a seasoned purveyor of sonic spectaculars . . . McCreesh is at pains to realise a sound world as close to Elgar’s as possible, providing detailed booklet-notes about his choices . . . Allied to the Elgarian soundscape McCreesh achieves in this recording is the remarkable acuity of the massed vocal forces that consist of the Gabrieli Consort, McCreesh’s youth choir Gabrieli Roar and the Polish National Youth Choir."
Tony Way, Limelight Magazine
Haydn, The Creation
Minnesota Orchestra, April 2023
"Friday's was the most enjoyable Minnesota Orchestra concert this season. Led by English conductor Paul McCreesh (who also translated the oratorio's text), it was as big and bold an interpretation as one could wish for a work that's basically about the beginning of everything. …Overseeing it all with insight, energy and charisma was McCreesh…"
- Rob Hubbard, StarTribune
Repertoire Selection
| BACH | B Minor Mass Christmas Oratorio St John Passion St Matthew Passion |
|---|---|
| BERLIOZ | La Damnation de Faust L'Enfance du Christ La Grande Messe des morts Symphonie fantastique |
| BEETHOVEN | Missa Solemnis Mass in C Symphonies 1-9 Violin concerto in D major |
| BRAHMS | Serenades 1 & 2 Requiem |
| BRITTEN | Interludes from Peter Grimes War Requiem |
| COPLAND | Appalachian Spring |
| DVORAK | Cello Concerto in B minor Piano Concerto in G minor Symphonies 6-9 |
| ELGAR | Cello Concerto The Dream of Gerontius Serenade for Strings Introduction and Allegro for Strings |
| FAURE | Requiem |
| HANDEL | Messiah |
| HAYDN | Seven Last Words From The Cross Symphonies The Creation The Seasons |
| MAHLER | Das Knaben Wunderhorn |
| MENDELSSOHN | Piano Concertos 1 & 2 Elijah |
| MOZART | Ballet music from Idomeneo Serenades Symphonies Requiem C Minor Mass |
| NIELSEN | Clarinet Concerto |
| PROKOFIEV | Symphony No. 1 (‘Classical’) |
| SCHOENBERG | Verklärte Nacht |
| SCHUBERT | Overtures in the Italian Style |
| SCHUMANN | Cello Concerto |
| SHOSTAKOVICH | Cello Concerto No. 1 |
| SIBELIUS | Valse Triste Symphonies no. 2 and 5 |
| STRAUSS | Four Last Songs |
| STRAVINSKY | Concerto in E-flat major (‘Dumbarton oaks’) |
| TCHAIKOVSKY | Romeo and Juliet Symphonies no. 4,5,6 Variations on a Rococco Theme |
| VERDI | Requiem |
| VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Symphonies 2,3 and 5 |
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