ADAMS, JOHN

 

Shaker Loops

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“[Quigley] was an excellent guide as usual…The performance was taut and athletic…Quigley whipped up the excitement in the orchestra, and the musicians responded with sharp, percussive attacks that brought fine clarity and energy to the performance.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

BACH, J.S.

 

Brandenburg Concerti

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“Patrick Dupré Quigley led the Firebird [Chamber Orchestra] in all-Bach evening…a wonderful 75 minutes of peerless music, peerlessly played…To hear this great music played so well, and so freshly and energetically, was an unalloyed delight, and long overdue for area audiences.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

Cantata 82 “Ich habe genug”

Seraphic Fire

 

“There are those rare and wonderful times in music when every element comes together and seems exactly right, when a great work is given a performance that captures the meaning and the message of the score…Patrick Dupré Quigley provided just such a moment Friday evening with a exceptional rendition of Bach’s Cantata No. 82, Ich habe genug.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

“Patrick Quigley’s fluid conducting traversed the score’s shifting moods from somber darkness to the lively conclusion.

— Miami Herald

 

Magnificat

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire’s artistic director, took one of his trademark brisk tempos in the joyous opening, with the orchestra going full tilt and singers’ voices ascending one on top of the other….[T]he performance was so sturdy and weighted, with shining tones in trumpets and vocal phrases shaped with such style by the choir, that it turned out to be a highly effective evocation of Mary’s jubilation.”

— Miami Herald

 

Mass in B minor

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“The performance [Quigley] led was all one could hope for in this work – joyful with thumping timpani and gleaming trumpets, radiant in the choir’s singing of Bach’s otherworldly harmonies and majestic in passages of choral grandeur… Quigley and the performers suffused it with a warm humanity…T]his is clearly one of the finest performances of the year.”

— Miami Herald

 

“Simply astonishing. Here was a muscular, joyous reading of this seminal work, sung by 17 singers who bounced along and smiled all the way through, and accompanied by a flexible Firebird Chamber Orchestra that could whisper intimately one moment and unleash the heavens the next...Quigley judged all of these dramatic alterations in the sonic fabric expertly, and that showed that this was an ensemble fully in control of this hugely difficult music and not mastered by it. So completely did the performers own it that it seemed impossible to believe that a piece this alive and this vibrant could be nearly 300 years old.”

–Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

Orchestral Suite in D major

New World Symphony

 

"Quigley was even more impressive leading [the New World Symphony in] J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major…Utilizing an ensemble of twenty-eight players, he launched the Overture in exhilarating fashion, with brilliant playing by the three exultant trumpets and solo violin… Quigley brought idiomatic Baroque stylishness to Bach’s rousing score, the strings’ lightness of touch infusing the music with joy and lilt."

— South Florida Classical Review

 

Orchestral Suite in D major

San Antonio Symphony

 

“Bach’s Suite No. 3 unfolded sweetly under Quigley’s baton, especially the widely known second-movement air.”

— San Antonio Express-News

 

St. John Passion

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“One of artistic director Patrick Dupre Quigley’s finest achievements…The depth and sensitivity of Quigley’s conducting combined operatic dramatic intensity with an impeccable sense of Baroque style…superb playing [by] the Firebird Chamber Orchestra.”

— Miami Herald

 

“Wonderful...a compelling, moving reading of the St. John Passion of J.S. Bach with thorough expertise and polish…Quigley and his forces brought the whole thing home with a rapturous Ruht wohl, which got increasingly gorgeous with each repetition... It stands with some of this group’s finest work”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

 

HANDEL, G.F.

 

Messiah

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“Quigley’s lithe, buoyant leadership radiated the joy and life-affirming force in every bar of Handel’s music. Choral and orchestral textures were clearly articulated and transparent, largely devoid of vibrato. A wealth of contrapuntal detail and inner voices that are lost in less accurate, more mundane performances were clearly audible. The precision, blending of choral sonorities and scrupulous attention to musical values of this choir remain awesome. Quigley’s crisp, freshly scrubbed version was a vivid demonstration of period performance practice at its best without any of the mannerisms that can weight down more indulgent early music performances.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

HAYDN, F.J.

 

Nelsonmesse

The Sebastians Period Instrument Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“Quigley’s keen sense of tempo and pacing matched his skill at vocal balancing. Under his lively direction, Haydn’s music seemed to leap off the page and resound with depth and vigor.”

— Miami Herald

 

Symphony No. 45, “Farewell”

The Sebastians Period Instrument Orchestra

 

“Conductor Quigley brought out the contrasts and manipulations of themes and harmonies that eventually became the defining formal element of the symphony, “sonata form.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

Te Deum

The Sebastians Period Instrument Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“The concert opened with a crisp reading of the Te Deum for Empress Marie Theresa, the exultant choral sound and vigorous string playing splendidly shaped by Quigley.”

— Miami Herald

 

“[T]he instrumentals’ techniques, as manifested in solo playing and team precision, were exemplary. This was evident in the piece that opened the program, a joyous, brief “Te Deum” composed for the Empress Maria Theresa, delivered with musical accuracy and infectious exuberance.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

 

MAHLER

 

Das Lied von der Erde

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“Quigley offered perhaps his finest orchestral conducting to date in South Florida. He managed Mahler’s rhythmic shifts adroitly and highlighted instrumental felicities while supporting his singers. Both the astringency and eloquence of Mahler’s score were well served.”

— South Florida Classical Review

 

“Conductor Quigley brought out a broad palette of color from this group, which resounded with orchestral fullness…There were too many instrumental niceties to enumerate.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

 

MOZART, W.A.

 

Exsultate, Jubilate

New World Symphony

 

"Mozart’s motet Exultate, Jubilate, the featured work on Friday’s first program, found Quigley drawing crisp playing from the chamber-sized [New World Symphony]. Mozart’s inner instrumental voices emerged with transparent clarity, and the elegant phrasing of the two oboes took special honors amid the refined and energetic orchestral performance. The blending of the soprano voice and strings in the central Andante was exquisite, with Quigley’s finely balancing timbres."

— Miami Herald

 

Requiem

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“Under music director Patrick Dupré Quigley, the choir sounded great through the work of both Spears and Mozart, with dead-on intonation, knife-edge precision in the most complex counterpoint and great tonal beauty. The Firebird Chamber Orchestra blended admirably, with a rich, burnished tone and evocative playing in brass and winds that never overpowered the singers.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

ORFF, C.

 

Carmina Burana

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“A more sensitive performance than is often heard with this work…Quigley faced the tension between Orff’s character and his work head on.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

PURCELL, H.

 

Dido and Aeneas

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“The performance led by Seraphic Fire founder and artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley gave a luminous account of Purcell’s music and made the most of the opera’s thin dramatic material…Accompanying the performance was the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble affiliated with the choir, which gave one of its best efforts yet—taut, energetic and sonorous.”

— Miami Herald

 

King Arthur

Firebird Chamber Orchestra/Seraphic Fire

 

“Kudos to Quigley for presenting this delightful work in an idiomatic, nearly flawless performance. His unerring sense of drama and contrast projected the score in one long arc, setting the perfect tempo for each set piece while maintaining tension and momentum. Quigley drew gorgeously layered textures from his 15-voice choir and alert, stylish playing from the Firebird Chamber Orchestra.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

SMITH, KYLE

 

Vespers

Piffaro/Seraphic Fire

 

“Under Quigley’s skillful conducting, Seraphic Fire’s perfect intonation, ensemble unity and purity of tone have long been a wonder of South Florida’s music scene, but the singers outdid themselves in this performances, singing with a pristine serenity and expressiveness that perfect suited the music.”

— South Florida Classical Review

 

 

TCHAIKOVSKY, P.

 

Serenade for Strings

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“Firebird was plenty large enough to give a rousing reading of this thrice-familiar piece, and it went well with Tchaikovsky’s neoclassical inclinations, sympathies that bring this work close to the world of the Mozart divertimento…[Quigley] kept the high emotion of the opening theme fully present. He also gave plenty of rein to the Italianisms present in this part of the Serenade (Tchaikovsky loved traveling in Italy), and the orchestra made them rich and pretty.”

— Palm Beach Arts Paper

 

 

TELEMANN, G.

 

Burlesque de Don Quixote

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“Firebird’s instrumental turn, Burlesque de Don Quixote by Georg Philip Telemann, charmingly captured the guileless Don. From the pastoral lines of “Don Quixote awakens” to vigorously ferocious repeated notes in “His attack on the Windmills,” Quigley’s liberal tempi and the ensemble’s committed performance clearly told the tale.”

— Miami Herald

 

 

VIVALDI, A.

 

Four Seasons

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“Conducting from the harpsichord, Quigley drew from the orchestra a performance of great originality yet one that seemed truer to the music than many of the standard performances available on recordings. There were sudden crescendos, unexpected stops and a sense that not a single note was taken for granted.”

— Miami Herald

 

In furore iustissimae

Firebird Chamber Orchestra

 

“With the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley has assembled a young, attractive ensemble that brings vitality and enjoyment to their performance. The light crispness associated with Vivaldi’s string writing was super-charged…resulting in a clear-etched sound with unusually resonant depth.”

— Miami Herald