Artistic Director Taverner Consort, Choir and Players
British conductor Andrew Parrott’s exploration of the classical repertoire has included productions of operas by Haydn, Gluck and Mozart (six of them for Toronto’s Opera Atelier) and the recording of all Beethoven’s works for piano and orchestra (with Ronald Brautigam for BIS). Andrew is former Music Director of the London Mozart Players and of the New York Collegium.
From the outset new music has also played an important part in Andrew Parrott’s wide-ranging musical life. He was an assistant to composer Michael Tippett for several years and a member of the vocal quartet Electric Phoenix, and has conducted major orchestral and choral works by Stravinsky and Judith Weir at the BBC Proms. The latter’s opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered (and later recorded) by him, as were works by other British composers and by Slovakia’s Vladimír Godár.
Andrew Parrott is perhaps best known though for his pioneering work in pre-classical repertory (from medieval music to Handel), notably in performances with his own Taverner Consort, Choir & Players, who have also made 60 or so recordings together – including his own première reconstruction of Bach’s lost Trauer-Music for Prince Leopold (2011), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (2013) and Taverner’s Western Wind mass (2016; Gramophone Award). A graduate of Oxford University, he has always been involved in related musicological research and has published two challenging books, The Essential Bach Choir (2000) and Composers’ Intentions? (2015). Andrew’s most recent book, The Pursuit of Musick was published in early 2023 to widespread critical acclaim.
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L’Orfeo - Taverner Consort
Avie Records / AV2278
This is the most beguiling Monteverdi opera recording for years.
Richard Morrison, The Times *****
This new version of Monteverdi's Orfeo is thoroughly researched and reimagined.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Observer
Parrott’s approach to recapturing the novelty of Orfeo is all about intimacy... [it is] a theatrical masterpiece and under Parrott’s gentle direction, it seems more remarkable than ever.
Simon Heighes, International Record Review
Orchestra of Opera North
Opera North
Conductor Andrew Parrott, an early music scholar and contemporary music champion, was master of both the evening’s
composers and conjured superb orchestral playing, at once strictly ordered and gorgeously expressive.
Daily Examiner
Iphégenie en Tauride
Opera Atelier
Musically, the opera is in the so-capable hands of English conductor Andrew Parrott and both the Tafelmusik orchestra and
choir are in fine fettle.
Robert Crew, The Star
Under conductor Andrew Parrott the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra admirably convey the urgency and modernity of this
gripping score.
Christopher Hoile, Toronto Eye
New York Collegium
New York
Parrott’s work continues to be informed by scholarship, intelligence, intuition, and a passion sometimes lacking in some of his
rivals…Parrott and the orchestra got into a lively, majestic swing that sounded authentically Handellian.
Robert Dyer, The Globe
Gluck ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’
Opera Atelier
Parrott's conducting of this rich score was masterful, keeping the tempos brisk and the textures lively.
John Terauds, Toronto Star
This show is also full of excellent artistic choices. Andrew Parrott conducts the Tafelmusik Orchestra, which provides almost
breathless energy.
John Keillor, National Post
London Mozart Players
BBC Proms
Andrew Parrott neatly piloted his band, encouraging fresh, springy articulation – a pure delight
Annette Morreau, Independent
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