Dramma per Musica (Cantata BWV 201)
Münchener Bach-Chor · Bach-Collegium München
Hansjörg Albrecht, conductor

If Bach had written an opera… Bach’s secular cantatas live and breathe due to the musical-dramatic talent of the baroque master’s polyphony. A talent that also distinguishes his oratorios and that confused not a few of his contemporaries, who did not expect such intense dramatic action in the context of sacred spaces. He often titled his secular cantatas – as in the case of BWV 201 – “Dramma per musica”. If Bach had written an opera… This thought inspired Hansjörg Albrecht to develop Cantata BWV 201, “Der Wettstreit zwischen Phoebus und Pan”, into a mini-opera. He added an overture as well as beginning and final choruses from other Bach works to create a musical-dramatic work that would have been appropriate for an evening’s entertainment at any baroque court.
Founded in 1954 by Karl Richter, the Münchener Bach-Chor has been directed since the 2005/2006 season by Hansjörg Albrecht, who has given the choir a new artistic profile within a very short time.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Der streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan

The Contest between Phoebus and Pan
Dramma per musica (Cantata BWV 201)

Momus	......	Simone Nold, soprano
Mercurius	......	Annette Markert, alto
Tmolus	......	Markus Schäfer, tenor
Midas	......	Werner Güra, tenor
Phoebus	......	Konrad Jarnot, baritone
Pan	......	Stephan Genz, baritone

Münchener Bach-Chor
Bach Collegium München
Hansjörg Albrecht

Bach and the “Dramma per musica”
“Heaven forbid! It is as if one was in an opera comedie.”

This sole surviving critique by an unknown noblewoman of the performance of Bach’s Passion of St. Mathew on Good Friday in the year 1729 allows us to sense the impression left by this grand musical drama. Bach’s music, in which elements of the Italian opera and concert-style are fused together, was anything but simply “beautiful”, its drama and the absence of any visual depiction on stage forced the audience to experience the piece at the spiritual level. The interpretation of a “theater for the mind” is called for, and one need not be bothered by the word ‘comedie’, for it has nothing to do with what we understand as comedy today. Theater troupes often performed serious pieces, but the actors themselves remained “comedians”. Comedie in this context then means simply a piece for the theater.

Johann Sebastian Bach never composed an opera, but the question is repeatedly and justifiably raised as to whether he might have become the most important opera composer of the Baroque, if he had received a position at the court in Dresden for example. The transition between church and secular music was nothing unusual in his work, and the courtly Baroque aspiration to rank and honour was certainly well known to him. It was a matter of course for him to effectively incorporate kettle drums and trumpets, either as the regalia of nobility and might, or for the glorification and praise of God and the monarchs chosen by him to rule on earth. This equivalency of spiritual and secular power has become as strange to us as the world view held at that time.

Throughout his life, Bach concentrated on solidifying his professional authority through tenaciously pursued career advancement and nominations: he was musical director in Koethen until 1729, and titular musical director of Weissenfels until 1735. Starting in 1736 he carried the title of “Court Composer of the Saxon Electoral Prince and Polish King”. Bach was not just the pious man and cantor that he is gladly seen as, but rather he considered himself a bandmaster and worked as such during his lifetime. As such, he left artistic creations to posterity, such as his Four Orchestral Suites and his Concerts avec Plusieurs Instruments (Six Brandenburg Concertos), that were meant for more than just a church performance. And his secular cantatas, which he often labeled as “Dramma per musica” are among the best music for a bandmaster, although today they are often, and unfortunately, considered “occassional compositions” performed as niche work.

“A cantata looks like a piece from an opera.”

This quote comes from Bach’s friend, the first pastor of Hamburg and cantata text author Erdmann Neumeister. His credo was directional for Bach from the very beginning, and although he – unlike his colleagues Reinken and Telemann – never wrote an opera, he was always inclined towards the dramatic. In Hamburg, where Bach spent considerable time, he may have visited the opera house on Gänsemarkt (which was then a leading theater where works from Handel, Mattheson and Keiser were performed) and derived important inspiration for the, in parts, very dramatic musical language of his cantatas and passions. And in Leipzig, the German trade and exposition city, which was no less important than Hamburg, and which Bach visited from his position at the Koethen court, enjoyed numerous popular opera performances. Thereto he was acquainted with various musicians of the Dresden court chapel. He was also friends with the “master” of the court opera, Johann Adolph Hasse and his wife, the opera diva Faustina Bordoni, and both visited Bach in Leipzig. In 1731 Bach experienced the premier of Hasse’s opera Cleofide in the court theater during a concert tour through Dresden, and affectionately termed the arias “beautiful songs”. The “Grand Opera House” in Dresden, built at the behest of August II (“the Strong”) was erected by both German and Italian artists and architects such as Pöppelmann, Permoser and the Mauro brothers. It boasted not only 2000 seats, but also attained the reputation of the largest German theater in Europe. During the reign of the italophile – a Saxon Electoral Prince and Polish King who converted to Catholicism – and his son August III, composers such as Lotti, Hasse and Naumann provided for Italian operatic majesty at the Saxon court. Johann Sebastian Bach as an artistic “fuser” of the Italian, French and German styles possessed a great affinity for the opera; at least the new opera house stood close to the Church of St. Sophia in which his son Wilhelm Friedemann was organist starting in the year 1733.

Let us put aside at this point all musicological knowledge and attempt to separate ourselves from our view of the spiritual Bach. Let us imagine the normal person, the worldly Johann Sebastian with his tendency towards sensuality, esprit and humour, and let our imagination run wild. May it not have been that Bach dreamt of a short opera during his composition? One of his new “Drammae per musica” composed not as music of homage, but as that of “opera comedie”? A work that was performed as the season opening in 1729 in a public “concert” that freed him for that evening from all churchly liabilities…?

…It is a tepid late summer evening. A stage has been erected on the marketplace in Leipzig, directly in front of the Apel house. Hundreds of eager spectators, many of them students, intellectuals and professors of the university, are waiting anxiously to hear what “grand music” Bach will present this evening, with his compliment of six soloists, his choir and the recently acquired student-comprised Collegium musicum. Bach had long since had his opponents, both in the church bureaucracy as well as among the musicologists, who considered his compositions as both too demanding and antiquated. Bach had to fight time and again against the council and school to demonstrate his skill in composing church music, and at the same time he had to defend himself against the proponents of the “sentimental style” who accused him of apparent artificiality and a lack of feeling. Due to rehearsals at the Café Zimmermann, it was known that this new cantata was something different, and that Bach had adopted the position of an “intellectual” and composed a lavish work that was worthy of being considered true music. In addition, the Electoral Prince has come with his family to Leipzig from Dresden in order to be honoured by the composer.

The entire square is lit by hundreds of torches, and with a virtuoso overture that Bach had composed years ago for his Shepherds Cantata (– debuted for the birthday of Duke Christian von Sachsen-Weissenfels), and that he had also used as a sinfonia in his Easter Oratorio, the evening begins with drums and the resplendent clangor of trumpets. The solo voice of the corresponding Adagio – in Bachs favorite tone of B minor – is performed on this evening by a flute (and not an oboe as previously). This new instrumentation is consciously chosen, and portends that this instrument will play a special role in the plot of the coming “drama”. At the silent conclusion of this adagio accompanied by strings, one naturally expects another quick concerto movement. The orchestra begins with a variant of the third movement from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto Nr. 1, and the choir – positioned to the right and left of the podium – answers in response to the obvious orchestral prelude with the words “Rise clangorous tones of cheerful trumpets”. Later it recites: “search for the most beautiful in the flutes”. It is an homage to music and will find its counterpart during the evening’s finale.

The last bar of the powerful three-part overture has just faded out when suddenly drums roll over the vast expanse of the square. One stands and the Electoral Prince and his family appear. The orchestra begins to play a march, the monarch gives a sign, and the curtain opens in the middle of the Competition between Phoebus and Pan.

The introductory music formally begins, whirls wildy and almost runs out of control. Bach’s poet Christian Friedrich Henrici Picander tells of the musical competition between two vainglorious gods in an adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, namely between Phoebus (Apollo) on his lyre and Pan on his flute. Bach himself sets the arias of the actors in respective keys, characteristic descriptions and refined instrumentalisation in highly artistic relation to each other. But let us return to the action on the stage. In the beginning, Aeolus the god of the winds appears to enjoy playing particularly loud during the competition by evoking a howling storm. Directly following the end of the storm, the voice of Phoebus rises from a forest glade. For him, the aesthete without equal, it is insufficient to be the god of light and art, he wants to prove that he is the best of the musicians as well. But his antipode doesn’t wait long to appear. The goat-legged Pan, for his part god of the forests and fields, provides resistance; he himself had invented the flute, built from seven reeds of varying length. And where a duel takes place, not only of a musical nature, a critic must be present. In this case Momus, laden with wisdom, the god of criticism and scorn, begins to amuse himself at Pan’s cost and presents himself with a basso continuo in “middle style” (G-major) as immensely precocious. But Mercurius can’t stand this any longer and tries to settle the dispute as a judge. He is however between two fronts, for he is the half-brother of Phoebus, and had sired Pan together with a nymph. What to do? He makes it easy on himself and suggests that each search a judge. Phoebus decides for Tmolus, the god of the mountains where the competition takes place, and Pan decides on Midas, who just happens to be present. This is the Midas who was considered a fool in ancient Greece, for he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold and almost starved as a consequence…

The decision for the judges has barely been made when Phoebus raises his voice in the esteemed circle and sings – again in Bach’s favorite key B-minor – of his beloved Hyacinth. A majestic aria with the oboe d’amore, muted strings and a flute (!) – the most modern sound of the late 1720s, and approaching the “sentimental style”. The intelligent Momus taunts Pan at this point, although he has yet to perform a single note. Pan remains unimpressed however and leaps goat-legged to take the stage. Violins, oboe d’amore and a basso continuo support the awkward dance and heart-rending sobs of the singer in this swashbuckling A-major. Tmolus immediately renders his verdict (made before the competition) for Phoebus, whom he adulates and imitates, having nothing but praise for his chosen god. One hears a wonderful trio of tenor, oboe d’amore and violoncello in F-sharp Minor. Could anyone object? Midas of course, for he is to take the side of Pan. In his foolishness however he overdoes it – the strings imitate the ugly sound of a donkey’s braying in this aria in D-major. He has barely finished when the experts and music critics puff themselves up and berate him liberally. Even Pan’s father Mercurius takes the side of the victorious opponent. Phoebus not only enjoys his victory at this point, but also humiliates Midas. He begs for mercy, but Phoebus turns his ears into those of a donkey anyway. Mercurius raises didactically and full of warning his forefinger and demonstrates in his aria in E-minor how one is to play the flute. Momus, the spirit of criticism, claims the final word for himself: good music is victorious over bad music, and expert knowledge trumps ignorance. In the final movement of the chorus, which once again refers to the blare of the trumpets, the praise of high art is sung with grace.

The curtain falls, the Electoral Prince rises and the applause begins. While the family of the Electoral Prince departs, the orchestra plays the march once again in a courtly and majestic manner.

Ovid managed success in his poetry without the howling winds, the scornful Momus, the sly god Mercurius – god of trade and, too, of the merchants of Leipzig. These two celestial figures were added by the libtrettist Picander to raise the tension on the stage. The evening of the premiere in Leipzig wasn’t lacking in excitement. Johann Sebastian Bach not only composed a piece full of entertainment in his “dramma per musica”, but also a desired explication of the contrast between the “artistic, dedicated and serious style, and that of the easy complaisant style” (Philipp Spitta).

We all very much enjoyed the Baroque resplendence and theatrical musical effects during this recording – even though we didn’t record an opera comedie such as Bach’s Passion of St. Mathew. I would like to thank the soloists and musicians of the Bach Collegium in Munich who were willing to experiment, as well as Torsten Schreier, our inspiring sound engineer. And it wasn’t just Bach who was dependent on finacing and favour in order to bring his pieces to the stage, therefore I thank our sponsors, the Friends of the Munich Bach Choir the Bavarian Radio and our producer Dieter Oehms who made this recording possible. I am also pleased to thank the Munich Bach Choir for their cooperation.

We wish joy and pleasure to you the listener!

Hansjörg Albrecht
translation: Maurice Sprague

Artists

Hansjörg Albrecht

Hansjörg Albrecht, conductor, organist and harpsichordist is one of the most versatile musicians of the younger generation. Born in Freiberg/Saxony in 1972, he received his first musical education as a member of the Dresden Kreuzchor. To further his musical talent he was awarded that choir’s Rudolf Mauersberger scholarship. In Hamburg and Cologne Hansjörg Albrecht studied organ with Gerhard Dickel and Thierry Mechler. Besides, he was a conducting student of General Music Director Klaus-Peter Seibel. While studying he became assistant organist at Hamburg’s main church St. Michaelis and held this position for seven years. On the occasion of the Bach Year 2000 Hansjörg Albrecht founded a chamber orchestra named “concerto agile”, which comprised members of the NDR Symphony Orchestra as well as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. Until 2006 he regularly performed with his orchestra focussing on the oeuvre of Bach as well as on arrangements of grand orchestral works from the 19th and 20th century.

Since September 2005 Hansjörg Albrecht has been the artistic director of the Munich Bach Choir. In a very short time he conferred a new profile on the choir through innovating the concept of programs, deepening the historically informed performance practice and fundamentally enlarging the choir’s repertoire up to the “Classical Moderne”. Since 2006, he has also been collaborating intensely with the Bach Collegium München. Furthermore, he worked as a conductor with the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Hamburg Baroque Orchestra as well as the Neue Elbland Philharmonie.

Besides, Hansjörg Albrecht has built up a reputation as excellent organist and harpsichordist in Germany, Europe, Israel, Japan and in the USA. As a soloist and continuo player he played with, among others, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angela Opera Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of St. Luke’s New York, the Orchestra de la Swisse Romande, the Orchestra de la Santa Cecilia Rome, the Camerata Salzburg, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Moreover, Hansjörg Albrecht is a well-liked partner for chamber music and gets regularly invited to prestigious music festivals in Germany, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic.

A very intensive and multifaceted artistic collaboration spanning five years developed between the singer and conductor Peter Schreier and Hansjörg Albrecht as his assistant, organist and harpsichordist.

During the last years he took part in many music productions and recordings by European and American broadcasting companies as well as in live broadcasts, for instance as a soloist in concerts at Prague and Madrid. In 2006 the performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Munich Bach Choir and Bach Collegium under his direction at the Philharmonie in Gasteig was put live on air by the Bavarian Broadcasting Company. In March 2007 the St. Matthew Passion, performed in Gdansk with the same set of musicians, was recorded by Polish television and broadcasting companies and aired several times on radio and TV.

Hansjörg Albrecht has an exclusive agreement with the CD label OehmsClassics. After his successful debut CD with an organ transcription of Richard Wagner’s “Ring”, a second CD with his own organ version of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” has been released in autumn 2007.

Münchener Bach-Chor

The Münchener Bach-Chor was founded in 1954 by Karl Richter, achieving international acclaim in the course of major tours. After Karl Richter’s death in 1981, Hanns-Martin Schneidt took over the choir in 1985, set new artistic accents and continued the ensemble’s extensive concert activities. Since the 2005/06 season, Hansjörg Albrecht has been the Münchener Bach-Chor’s new conductor, and is considered a “stroke of luck for the Münchener Bach-Chor,” as the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote. Albrecht has not only gained recognition as a conductor, but is lauded as an excellent organist and harpsichordist. He has given the choir a new artistic profile and more transparent sound, which is being rewarded with excellent reviews both by Munich and international critics. Albrecht’s animated and well structured Bach interpretations, inspired by historical performance practice, his own program concepts and reworking of compositions from the classical modern are particularly attractive for the Münchener Bach-Chor. High points during the choir’s two-year cooperation with Albrecht have included the 2006 performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Settembre Musica Festival in Turin as well as participation in the choreographed St. Matthew Passion in J. Neumeier’s arrangement at the Oberammergau Festspielhaus for an audience of 6,000. The Münchener Bach- Chor has cooperated particularly intensively with the Bach Collegium München. In addition, the choir has worked with the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and most recently with the Munich RSO. The ensemble has also performed under renowned guest conductors such as Bruno Weil, Ralf Otto, Oleg Caetani and Peter Schreier, and works with major soloists including Chen Reiss, Elisabeth Kulman, Ingeborg Danz, Markus Schäfer, Konrad Jarnot and Roman Trekel.

Bach Collegium München

The Bach Collegium München celebrates its 30th anniversary during the 2003/04 concert season. The orchestra’s transparent and lively interpretational style has earned it national and international acclaim during its entire existence.

In the course of the Bach Collegium München’s performances and concert tours in Germany and abroad, it has achieved a reputation as one of the world’s elite ensembles.

The Bach Collegium München’s broad musical repertoire ranges from Monteverdi and Handel to Mozart and Beethoven up to works of contemporary composers. In 1987, it won the Special Prize of the Ernst-von-Siemens Foundation for its musical contribution. The Bach Collegium München’s development over the years has been supported by regular and productive collaboration with soloists and conductors of international standing, including András Adorján, Maxim Vengerov, Shlomo Mintz, Christopher Hogwood, Bruno Weil, Hermann Prey, Cheryl Studer, Simon Estes, Marjana Lipovsek, Thomas Quasthoff, Mstislav Rostropowitsch, Simon Preston, Håkan Hardenberger, Guy Touvron, Ralf Weikert, Peter Schreier and Wolfgang Sawallisch as well as outstanding choirs such as the Windsbach Knabenchor, Regensburg Domspatzen, Münchener Bach-Chor and the Arnold Schönberg Chor of Vienna.

Concerts in important German music centers like Berlin, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, tours in Europe, Asia and South America have been received just as jubilantly as the ensemble’s participation in major music festivals such as the Istanbul Festival, Berlin Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Cuenca Festival and Moravian Summer Festival. Since the autumn of 2005, the Bach Collegium München has performed regularly at home and abroad together with the Münchener Bach-Chor, now under the baton of Hansjörg Albrecht – a cooperation that has received considerable praise from music critics.

Werner Güra

Munich tenor Werner Güra completed his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, continuing his vocal training with Prof. Kurt Widmer in Basel and Prof. Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

After guest performances at the Frankfurt and Basel opera houses, the tenor went to the Semper Opera in Dresden. Daniel Barenboim invited Werner Güra to join the Berlin State Opera, where he has regularly appeared since the 1998/99 season. He sang Tamino in the new production at the Opéra National de Paris as well as in La Monnaie in Brussels. He also sang Don Ottavio under the direction of René Jacobs at the 2006 Innsbruck Festival for Early Music and the Baden-Baden Festival.

Since the beginning of his professional career, Werner Güra has strived to attain a balance between the opera stage and the concert podium. As a concert and oratorio singer, he works with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest under conductors like Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Ton Koopman, Adam Fischer and Peter Schreier.

Werner Güra is also a renowned Lied interpreter who has performed in London’s Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Cologne Philharmonie, Lincoln Center New York, and at the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg and Barcelona. His CDs have been awarded the Diapason d’or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice.

Stephan Genz

Stephan Genz was born in Erfurt in 1973 and received his first musical training as a member of the Leipzig Thomanerchor. He studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the Leipzig Academy for Music and Theater. Studies with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Hall at the Karlsruhe State Academy for Music followed in 1994. Stephan Genz also studied Lied interpretation with Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

He won several renowned prizes at international competitions, including the International Johannes-Brahms Competition Hamburg and International Hugo-Wolf Competition Stuttgart in 1994.

Guest appearances took him to opera houses in Berlin (Deutsche Staatsoper), Hamburg, Dresden, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Regio Parma, Opera de Monte Carlo, Lausanne, Strasbourg and Paris (Bastille, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Teatro alla Scala Milano and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Stephan Genz has performed with numerous renowned conductors, including Myung-Whun Chung, Marcus Creed, Gerd Albrecht, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jesus Lopez-Coboz, Fabio Luisi, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Georges Prétre, René Jacobs, Helmuth Rilling and Giuseppe Sinopoli. His CDs have received major prizes such as the Diapason d’Or and Timbre de Platin. In October 1999, the baritone was presented with the Brahms Prize of the State of Schleswig- Holstein.

In October 1999, he was awarded the sought-after Gramophone Award for Solo Voice in London. In 2000, he was given the Belgian critics’ Prix de Jeune Musicien de l‘Année 2000.

Numerous solo recitals and concerts in the USA and nearly all European countries and Japan round out the baritone’s artistic activities.

Annette Markert

Born in the Thuringian Rhön Mountains, Annette Markert completed her vocal studies at the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Music Academy in Leipzig. Following this, she was engaged at opera houses in Halle and Leipzig for several years. Since 1996, she is active as a freelance opera and concert singer and has performed with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur as well as the Vienna Philharmonic under Philippe Herreweghe and the International Bachakademie Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling. She has worked with conductors like Michael Gielen, Kent Nagano, Herbert Blomstedt, Peter Schreier, Nicholas McGegan, Paul McCreesh, Michael Hofstetter, Enoch zu Guttenberg and Ton Koopman. For the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, she sang in a performance of the B Minor Mass under Sir Roger Norrington in London. The soprano has made a name for herself particularly with Handel operas – including the title roles in Floridante, Rinaldo, Orest and Giulio Cesare – under directors like Peter Konwitschny, Andreas Baumann, Ruth Berghaus, Herbert Wernicke and David Alden; she was twice awarded the Handel Prize of the city of Halle.

Annette Markert has numerous CD productions to her name. These include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St. John Passion under Ludwig Güttler, Mozart’s Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Paulus under Herreweghe, Eisler’s Deutsche Sinfonie under Lothar Zagrosek, Bach Cantatas under Ton Koopman and recordings with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging under Jos van Veldhoven.

Simone Nold

Lyric soprano Simone Nold received her training at the Munich Academy for Music with Kammersänger Reri Grist and attended Lied classes of Helmut Deutsch and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She also won a DAAD scholarship to the USA, where she studied opera with Virginia Zeani and Lied with Leonard Hokanson.

In 1996, she became a member of the Deutschen Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where she debuted as Pamina, Konstanze, Ännchen, Marzelline and Madeleine. Her broad stage repertoire ranges from unknown baroque works to contemporary music. She has sang a number of premieres and first performances, inspiring Berlin audiences and the international press in the main role of Rose in Elliott Carter’s first opera “What next?”. This was followed by performances under Daniel Barenboim in Chicago and New York and under Kent Nagano in Paris.

In addition to Lied and chamber music, which she especially loves, Simone Nold’s concert repertoire includes the major oratorios and masses. She has performed under such conductors as Pierre Boulez, Adam Fischer, Peter Schreier, Helmuth Rilling, Philipp Herreweghe and Christoph Eschenbach.

Simone Nold has appeared in the major European and North American music centers as well as at various festivals such as the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Schubertiade, Würzburg Mozartfest, BBC Proms London and has participated in numerous radio and television broadcasts.

In 2004, she debuted as Sophie in Rosenkavalier in the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; she debuted at the Salzburg Festival in 2005.

Markus Schäfer

Tenor Markus Schäfer studied voice and sacred music in Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf (voice with Armand McLane) and was a competition winner in Berlin (National Vocal Competition) and Milan (Caruso Competition). He attended the Zurich Opera Studio and debuted at the Zurich Opera House, after which he received his first engagement.

This was followed by appearances at the Hamburg State Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, where he was a member of the ensemble until 1993.

Since then, guest appearances and concert tours have taken him to renowned opera houses and festivals.

He often sings Mozart roles such as Ferrando, Ottavio or Tamino, e.g. appearing with these at the Berlin and Munich State Operas. He also enjoys singing the Evangelist in Bach’s oratorios, and has appeared with these in Bach festivals in Ansbach, Leipzig and Lucerne.

The many conductors under whom he has sung include René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Paul McCreesh, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Yehudi Menhuin, Michael Gielen, Stephan Soltesz, Kent Nagano and Yakov Kreizberg.

His work is documented on numerous CD and radio productions.

He has celebrated successes in Vienna as a Lied interpreter and at the Schubertiades in Feldkirch and Schwarzenberg as well as in New York, where he appeared with pianist Hartmut Höll singing works of Schubert and Schumann.

Markus Schäfer will soon be performing in Joseph Haydn’s Orlando Palladino at the Theater an der Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Frans Brüggen has once again invited him to sing the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Johannes Passion on a tour of cities including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. He will sing the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 2008 on a tour with the Windsbach Knabenchor. In Salzburg, he will interpret the Mozart Vespers under Charles Mackerras (Easter Festival 2008).

Konrad Jarnot

Konrad Jarnot is one of the most renowned singers of the younger generation. Since winning First Prize in the ARD Music Competition in Munich, he has appeared in all important concert halls (Lincoln Center New York, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Wien, Wigmore Hall London, Cité de la Musique Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie Cologne and München, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspielhaus Baden Baden and Salzburg, Tonhalle Zürich, KKL Luzern, Kioi Hall Tokyo etc.) and opera houses (Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Teatro Real Madrid, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Théâtre de la Monnaie Bruxelles, Grand Théâtre de Genève) in the world .

He regularly works with major conductors (Riccardo Chailly, Antonio Pappano, Marek Janowski, Jesus-Lopez-Cobos, Philippe Herreweghe, Pinchas Steinberg, Marcello Viotti, Jonathan Nott, Thomas Hengelbrock, Bruno Weil, Frieder Bernius, Helmut Rilling, Peter Schreier), pianists (Hartmut Höll, Irwin Gage, Helmut Deutsch, Wolfram Rieger, Alexander Schmalcz), orchestras (Israel Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk etc.) und choirs (Rias Kammerchor, Collegium Vocale Gent, Accentus, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Windsbacher Knabenchor).

He also appears at major festivals (Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Schwetzingen Music Festival, Ludwigsburger Palace Festival, Beethoven Festival Bonn, Bach Festival Leipzig, Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, La folle journée Nantes).

He particularly loves the Lied, of which he is one of the leading international interpreters. Numerous radio and television productions and CDs document his exceptional standing.