The Gramophone - 'Southwell Splendour' solo organ CD

Hale shows…poetic insight. Admirable…a model of how things should be done.

Organists' Review - 'Southwell Splendour' solo organ CD

This is a scintillating release. The programme is extremely well-judged…It's also played with fine musicianship and flair…showing absolutely convincing authority in a very wide range of moods, idiom and period. Altogether marvellous.

Sir David Lumsden - after Winchester Cathedral recital, May 2011

Your consummate artistry must stem from your unique experience, as academic and scholar (concerning different periods and styles), your unrivalled knowledge of the insides of organs, your masterly technique and - perhaps most important of all - your great success as a choir-trainer, which means you instinctively and naturally let the music breath, take shape, vary colour and dynamics and communicate with the listener. You hold all this in enviable balance and always seem to enjoy what you are doing, which of course communicates itself apparently effortlessly.

Leicester Mercury - De Montfort Hall recital

A concert that was both entertaining and educational. Playing was of the highest order

Choir & Organ critic Brian Hick - Cookham Dean recital

…a stirring reading…splendid. That it [Franck Chorale III] was so convincing was a tribute to the artistry of Paul Hale's registration and dynamic restraint. Attention to detail was constantly pleasing.

Nottingham Evening Post critic Peter Palmer
Southwell Minster Bank Holiday recital

Southwell Minster was packed…Paul Hale's exhilarating performance of the Toccata & Fugue in D minor was worth waiting for.

Grimsby Evening Telegraph
- Humberston Parish Church, opening recital

A master player with a thorough understanding of the soul of the instrument.

Yorkshire Post critic Paul D Harrison - All Saints’, Hessle recital

Paul Hale…came with an impressive CV which heightened expectations and did not disappoint. His arresting account of Whitlock's Fanfare made the piece spring into life. The encore…brought the house down.

Robert Lightband - after a London recital, September 2006

Paul's programme was carefully designed to show off all aspects of what turned out to be a very large organ. It would be unworthy of me to say that Paul played impeccably; the playing was quite stunning.

Derby Evening Telegraph - Derby Cathedral recital

Vierne's Clair de Lune provided a heavily scented oasis between the Mendelssohn and the juggernaut of Healy Willan's Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, in which Paul Hale's grasp of the music's scale and architecture was impeccable, and there was a real sense of exhilaration in the Fugue's final moments.

Newark & Southwell Advertiser
Nottingham Bach Choir, Elgar The Kingdom, March 2011

All these forces were as a single entity through the conducting of Paul Hale, whose training of the choir resulted in a confident and emotive reading of the score.

Church Times critic Roderic Dunnett -
Nottingham Bach Choir, Stanford Requiem

My most invigorating choral experience this year.

Nottingham Evening Post - a reader's letter
Nottingham Bach Choir, Stanford Requiem

Paul Hale's conducting was incisive and enabled a good performance to be achieved.

Nottingham Evening Post critic Peter Palmer
Nottingham Bach Choir - culled from various reviews

• I have not heard a St Matthew Passion [in Nottingham] that brought out so much vivid expressive detail.
• Paul Hale directed a…beautifully executed German Requiem.
• The Apostles was paced throughout with great discretion and the two climaxes were thrillingly built.
• It was the many moments of excellent co-ordination…that accounted for the success of the performance under Paul Hale's skilful and inspiring direction. [Bach, Mass in B minor]
• I have not heard a St Matthew Passion [in Nottingham] that brought out so much vivid expressive detail.
• Majestic and radiant…musical results splendidly reproduced. [The Splendour of Venice concert]
• Exquisitely balanced and blended…one of their finest performances. [Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle]
• The success of this Passion [Bach, St Matthew] lay in its spiritual and artistic coherence and in the urgency of its communication with the audience. [critic Graham Whitehead]
• Paul Hale's imaginative direction…stylish and stirring.
  [Mozart, Requiem Mass]
• The choir rose magnificently to the challenge.
  [Bruckner motets]
• There was much beautiful singing from the Bach Choir and some distinguished playing from Orchestra da Camera.
  [Elgar, The Apostles, March 2007

Church Times critic Roderic Dunnett -
Nottingham Bach Choir, Elgar The Apostles

A handsome performance…under Paul Hale. Some fine mystic choruses at the close confirmed this performance as the fine achievement it was.

Church Times critic Roderic Dunnett -
Nottingham Bach Choir, Stanford Requiem

Nottingham was treated to one of the high points of the choral calendar, when Stanford's Requiem was recently given a stunning revival by Nottingham Bach Choir. Chief credit for this triumphant evening lay with chorus, orchestra and conductor. Paul Hale ensured that not one moment dragged.