Q & A with Paul McCreesh "It wasn't written in the stars I would be a conductor."
Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players feature in a series of Christmas concerts as part of Live from London
The Gabrieli Consort and Players appear at Live from London Christmas with conductor Paul McCreesh from Friday 25 December 2020. For more details and how to buy a season ticket, visit the Live from London Christmas website.
We spoke to conductor Paul McCreesh about his connection with Baroque music began and why Bach's music is closely connected with Christmas.
When did your relationship with Baroque music begin?
When I was in school I would say Baroque music was the music I liked the least. I think some of that was probably because at that time there were only really heavyweight, heavy duty recordings from the 50s and 60s.
Then suddenly in late 1970s there came this new way of playing baroque music with very period instruments with one or two seminal recordings.
I remember particularly conductor Christmas Hogwood's Messiah around about 1980. Suddenly, this music sort of made sense - it lifted, danced, it wasn't turgid in the old way. I think I became a little bit of a groupie for quite a number of years.
I began playing on gut strings on the cello. It suited me because it was a time a lot of younger musicians, like myself became interested.
We were the leaders of the second generation of baroque music makers. I also spent six years as a school teacher, and then suddenly, by the age of 30, I was doing work on a sort of semi-professional basis, and then a contract with Deutsche Grammophon at the age of 30. I had to learn quickly - I was thrown into the deep end. A real baptism of fire - it wasn't written in the stars I would be a conductor. it was a tremendous opportunity, a huge challenge.
Was that the fearlessness of youth, perhaps?
I think it's as you get older, you realize how hard music is. Back at the beginning I think I was less of a conductor, a bit more of a facilitator, more of a director. I freely admit to learning a lot of my craft with many of my colleagues, some of whom are still with me. People like Rachel Podger, who I know you've spoken to before in this series. Rachel led the orchestra for three or four years. I was very privileged to work with her - a tremendous Baroque violinist. She was one of many people who've been through the Gabrieli ranks and you know, some great singers Thomas Ainsley and Christopher Purvis - people who've, who've gone on to have huge careers. We all learned together and that was a wonderful process.
It sounds as though there's perhaps an egalitarianism in Baroque music performance?
There is often a need in Baroque and in Classical music to be, you know, the first among equals. It's not music for which the theatre of the performance in conducting is relevant or necessary. There is the sense of being the person who establishes the 'temperature' of the performance or defines the parameters. And regardless of what period of music I work on (I was working on some Elgar recently), I still think I somehow approach the music from the eyes of a chamber musician. And a lot of those skills were well-honed, I think in the period music world. I think the days of the tyrannical sort of conductor are behind us.
You're playing Bach's Christmas Oratario from 25th December to 6th January as part of Live from London Christmas. What makes Bach's music represent Christmas, do you think?
Ultimately, the English tradition of Christmas is largely descended from the German tradition. Bach's music is the greatest setting of all of those fantastic chorales from Martin Luther. It's very much the Christmas tradition which becomes part of the English tradition much later on in the late 19th century. So all those things that we think of as Victorian and rather kitsch, were actually there way back in the distant post-Reformation period.
What I love about Christmas is I think how it's a wonderful metaphor: the simplicity of a child coming to save the world. We might interpret that a number of different ways. Firstly, literally.
Also, the idea that somehow the simplicity and the purity of life actually offers us the greatest spiritual fulfillment, however we need to find that. And I think perhaps we need always to be reminded of that as the world becomes ever more frenetic. We're panicking more and more. And we're in the middle of a terrible modern day plague. And yet somehow the beauty of that idea that, in the quietness of night, we can find ourselves.
That's a really beautiful concept. Bach's music is the most complex music you can ever imagine, but he never loses sight of simplicity. His music is always immensely beautiful, immensely direct.
When do the Gabrieli Consort and Players appear at Live from London Christmas?
The Gabrieli Consort and Players appear at Live from London with conductor Paul McCreesh from Friday 25 December 2020. For more details and how to buy a season ticket, visit the Live from London Christmas website.