How do you listen to music most often?
I’m forever on the road, so I often have to listen to music on my phone or computer, but nothing beats listening through good speakers in my little barn-studio at home.
What was the last piece of music you bought?
Delius’s opera A Village Romeo and Juliet. I often conduct the famous Intermezzo The Walk to the Paradise Garden but had never heard the whole opera - it’s really so beautiful.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
Why should I feel guilty listening to any music? Ok, if I have to admit to something, it’s that I’m strangely partial to good hymn-singing.
If you found yourself with six months free to learn a new instrument, what would you choose?
I don’t think I’d get very far on any instrument in six months, but a few more singing lessons would be useful.
Is applauding between movements acceptable?
Absolutely.
What single thing would improve the format of the classical concert?
Abandoning ghastly 19th-century dress.
What’s been your most memorable live music experience as an audience member?
I think it was probably the first time I ever heard an orchestra. I can remember the programme – it included Dvořák’s New World Symphony – and I can still feel the visceral excitement of an orchestra playing at full tilt. I must have been about nine; I was hooked from that moment on.
What was the first ever record you bought?
I remember my mother buying me a recording of The Planets on the old Classics for Pleasure label which I much enjoyed. A little later I also bought myself the old recording of David Munrow’s Purcell Odes, wonderful stuff.
Do you enjoy musicals? Do you have a favourite?
I can’t really say I would weep if I never went to another musical, but something that doesn’t appear in my biography is that I played cello in The Pyjama Game for about 100 performances as a young man. It was great fun, not least to listen to a jazz reed section playing their socks off!
How many recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies do you own? Do you have a favourite?
Probably at least a dozen. I think Böhm’s Vienna Philharmonic recording of the Sixth symphony, especially the horn playing, takes some beating.
Which conductor of yester-year do you most wish you could have worked with?
Claudio Abbado. Nobody had better hands as a conductor, not to mention his unerring musical instincts.
Which non-classical musician would you love to work with?
Is this the moment where I mention some uber-trendy obscure Finnish rock band? I have to be honest, I don’t think I’d ever make a crossover artist!
Imagine you’re a festival director here in London with unlimited resources. What would you programme - or commission - for your opening event?
A rather dangerous question for me as I’ve never been renowned for cheap projects! I’d love to have a go at mounting the Florentine Intermedi of 1589, as long as I was allowed a vast budget for the most spectacular stage set and visual effects. This was the greatest “musical” of the 16th century, with a huge ensemble, but the last major performance in the UK was at least 30 years ago.
What do you sing in the shower?
With a professional singer as a wife, I keep my mouth firmly shut!
Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort perform at the Wigmore Hall on 12 & 13 May 2015 as part of the Purcell Retrospective. Their new disc of Handel’s L’Allegro is out now on Winged Lion.
