Paul Agnew
One of the world's foremost tenors specializing in Baroque opera and choral music, Paul Agnew has a long vocal résumé that includes works of many nationalities and time periods. He has also turned to conducting in the second half of his career, becoming the first conductor other than founder William Christie to lead the noted French Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants.
Agnew was born in Glasgow on April 11, 1964. He attended Magdalen College at Oxford University as a choral scholar, performing in the school's famous chapel choir in addition to his academic studies. When he graduated, London's early music scene was burgeoning, and there were plenty of opportunities for a young singer. He performed in the Consort of Musicke and also sang at various times with The Sixteen, Gothic Voices, and The Tallis Scholars. Launching a career as a soloist in the early '90s, Agnew attracted Christie's attention and was offered the chance to move to France to perform with Les Arts Florissants. He was soon the group's lead vocal soloist, performing lead roles in such operas as Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, in a production that traveled around France and as far as New York. Agnew was a tenor, but he also sang in a high register in a voice known in French as the haute-contre. He has sometimes been described as a countertenor as well as a tenor, but the haute-contre, of which Agnew was one of the few exponents when he began taking such roles in the '90s, has a different vocal quality that involves less falsetto than a true countertenor voice. Although Agnew has devoted much of his career to Les Arts Florissants, he has also sung in English and has recorded a wide variety of material, including songs of Ivor Gurney and, in 2001, Beethoven's settings of English-language folk songs. He has also performed in large choral works by Bach and others and recorded English voice and lute music with lutenist Christopher Wilson.
In 2007, Agnew began leading Les Arts Florissants as associate conductor; he began to conduct the group more and more often, and later, he was named joint music director. In 2018, conducting Les Arts Florissants, he released an album devoted to little-known French Baroque motet composers Sébastien de Brossard and Pierre Bouteiller. Christie remains the artistic director of Les Arts Florissants, but Agnew has begun to conduct the group more often. He has led music from beyond the French Baroque, initiating recorded series of the madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo in the 2010s and 2020s. In 2023, the Gesualdo series concluded with recordings of the composer's Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals and the Tenebrae Responsories.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Schütz: Italian Madrigals
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by harmonia mundi on 6 Oct 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: The Great Venetian Mass
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew, Sophie Karthäuser, Lucile Richardot
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by harmonia mundi on 24 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gesualdo: Tenebræ Responsoria, Feria Quinta
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 10 Mar 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri quinto & sesto
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by harmonia mundi on 10 Mar 2023
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gesualdo : Madrigali, Libri primo & secondo
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 25 Oct 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dowland: Lachrimae
Thomas Dunford, Ruby Hughes, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Paul Agnew
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 26 Mar 2013
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri terzo & quarto
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by harmonia mundi on 5 Feb 2021
Diapason d'or24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Les Maîtres du Motet (Brossard, Bouteiller) (Live)
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 28 Sep 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Claudio Monteverdi : Madrigali Vol. 2 (Mantova)
Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew
Secular Vocal Music - Released by Les Arts Florissants on 22 Sep 2014
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Madrigali Vol. 3, Venezia (Live)
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Opera - Released by harmonia mundi on 17 Feb 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : Arie d'Opera (Opere teatrale, vol. 5)
Federico Maria Sardelli, Modo Antiquo, Sandrine Piau, Paul Agnew, Ann Hallenberg
Opera Extracts - Released by naïve classique on 14 Jun 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les Arts Florissants: Secular Music
Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Paul Agnew
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 5 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi : Madrigali (Cremona), Vol. 1
Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew
Classical - Released by Les Arts Florissants on 11 May 2015
Choc de Classica5 de DiapasonGramophone AwardGramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Arie d'opera
Sandrine Piau, Paul Agnew, Antonio Vivaldi
Classical - Released by naïve on 14 Jun 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Madrigali: Cremona Vol. 1
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
Classical - Released by Les Arts Florisants on 11 May 2015
Choc de Classica5 de DiapasonGramophone AwardGramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Knightly Passions: The Songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein
Catherine Bott, Paul Agnew, MICHAEL Georges, New London Consort, Philip Pickett
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gurney: Severn Meadows; 5 Elizabethan & Other Songs
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jul 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos sacrés & Musique pour clavecin
Susan Gritton, Paul Agnew, Stephen Varcoe, Julian Podger, Robert Woolley, Purcell Quartet
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Chandos on 1 Oct 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo