Paul McCreesh's latest recording has won best recording in the choral category at the 2024 Gramophone Awards! The Dream of Gerontius, the latest recording from the Gabrieli Consort & Players features Anna Stéphany, Nicky Spence, Andrew Foster-Williams, Gabrieli Roar, and Polish National Youth Choir.
Richard Lawrence on Gramophone's official release writes: ' This recording by Paul McCreesh, the first on period instruments, is up there with the best of them. The balance between singers and players and between the sections of the orchestra is so well judged by McCreesh, and he engineers that phrases previously unnoticed (by me, anyway) come across as wonderful examples of the subtlety of Elgar’s orchestration.'
The original Gramophone review by Jeremy Dibble read: “McCreesh brings an impressive control of contrasting tempos to the polyphonic, multicolour orchestration that forms such an intrinsic part of the work."
The recording is the 14th to be released on the Winged Lion Label which was created by McCreesh in 2010 and features authoritative recordings of such works as Mendelssohn's Elijah, Britten's War Requiem (2014 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award), and Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, alongside collections of British music.
Alongside the Gabrieli Consort, McCreesh has also led such high-esteemed orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic and Verbier Festival Orchestra.
Recent and upcoming highlights include his return to Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in an orchestral programme of Mendelssohn and Brahms, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s Creation with the Minnesota Orchestra and the George Enescu Philharmonic, Verdi’s Requiem with the Krakow Philharmonic, and Cherubini’s Requiem with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw. Paul also continues his relationship with The Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra as their Principal Guest Conductor where this season he conducts repertoire including Sibelius 2nd Symphony, Mozart Jupiter Symphony, Beethoven 5th
Symphony and Vaughan-Williams 5th Symphony.
