Gabrieli Consort & Players & Paul McCreesh

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Gabrieli Consort & Players & Paul McCreesh · The Gabrieli Consort & Players is an early-music ensemble founded in 1982 by the English conductor Paul McCreesh, born in 1960. McCreesh began as a cellist and studied at the University of Manchester. He made his name with music of the Renaissance and the Baroque, above all that of Venice. The ensemble takes its name from the Venetian composers Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. In 1992 McCreesh and his ensemble made a successful debut at the Proms, where the second half of the concert consisted of music for the coronation of a doge in 1595.

Music and breakthrough

McCreesh is known for his liturgical reconstructions, in which music is presented in the form of a particular service, complete with fitting background sounds such as the ringing of bells. The recording Venetian Coronation, made in 1990, won a Gramophone Award and became the ensemble's breakthrough. A new version followed in 2012. From 1993 he built up a large discography with Deutsche Grammophon, and in 2011 he founded the label Winged Lion. He also conducted modern orchestras and operas by Handel, Gluck and Mozart, and directed festivals in Wrocław in Poland and at Brinkburn in England.

Influence

The Gabrielis' music is written for several choirs and brass ensembles, which answer one another across the great space of San Marco in Venice. The ensemble shows how stereo effects already existed in the sixteenth century. Two works return in School of Rock: the Gloria à 16 by Andrea Gabrieli and the Sonata pian' e forte by Giovanni Gabrieli.

Listening

• 
  Gloria à 16 (Andrea Gabrieli) · Gabrieli Consort & Players & Paul McCreesh, 1587
• 
  Sonata pian' e forte (Giovanni Gabrieli) · Gabrieli Consort & Players & Paul McCreesh, 1597

See also

• Venetian polychoral style