Matthias Goerne

Matthias Goerne (born 31 March 1967[1]) is a German baritone. He has performed and recorded extensively, both on the opera stage and in Lieder settings. Goerne has been referred to as "Today's leading interpreter of German art songs" by the Chicago Tribune,[2] while the Boston Globe describes him as "one of the greatest singers performing today".[3]

Matthias Goerne
Born
Matthias Goerne

(1967-03-31) 31 March 1967
Weimar, Germany
EducationUniversity of Music and Theatre Leipzig
Occupations
Years active1997–

Prominent opera stages on which Goerne has appeared include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.[4] His carefully chosen roles range from Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Amfortas (Parsifal), Kurwenal (Tristan) and Orest (Electra) right up to the title roles in Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Hindemith's Mathis der Maler and Reimann's Lear.

In Lieder settings, he has worked with many pre-eminent pianists, including Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniil Trifonov and Seong-Jin Cho.

Biography

Early life and education

Goerne was born in Weimar.[5] He grew up in a musical environment, his father being a dramaturgist and director of several acting theaters in Dresden.[6] His first instrument was the cello, but he soon switched to singing.[7] At the age of 9 he determined that he wanted to become a professional singer.[6] He sang in the children's choirs of several of his father's theater productions, including Carmen and La Bohème.[8] From the age of 18 to 22 he studied voice in Leipzig under Hans-Joachim Beyer.[6] He would later refer to Beyer as being his most important teacher, and as the one who enabled him to start winning competitions.[7] In 1989, he won second prize in the Robert Schumann Competition and first prizes in the Salomon-Lindberg and Hugo Wolf competitions.[9] Two years into his studies, he won a singing competition in West Berlin. The head of the jury, composer and pianist Aribert Reimann, introduced him to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whom Goerne considered his idol and the greatest artist he knew. He was to receive singing lessons from Fischer-Dieskau for 3 years.[6] Next, he studied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for two and a half to three years.[6]

1990s

Goerne made his professional début in Leipzig in 1990 after being invited by Kurt Masur to sing in Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion.[9]

Goerne made his Salzburg Festival début in 1997 (Papageno).[10]

2000s

From 2001 through 2005, Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.[5] In 2001, he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.[11]

2010s

In the late 2000s to 2014, he recorded a selection of Schubert lieder, The Goerne/Schubert Edition on 12 CDs, for Harmonia Mundi. The final volume, published in December 2014, received the highest rating in BBC Music magazine and a Diapason d'Or. His recording of Hanns Eisler lieder was awarded a Diapason d'Or de l'Année the same year.[12]

Highlights of the 2011/12 season included a tour with the Vienna Philharmonic, appearances at the Vienna State Opera and the Saito Kinen Festival (Bluebeard with Seiji Ozawa) and song recitals with Christoph Eschenbach, and Leif Ove Andsnes in Paris, Vienna and New York (Carnegie Hall).

From 2012–2013, Matthias Goerne sang Wolfram at the Bavarian State Opera and Amfortas in concert with the Teatro Real in Madrid.[13] Concert highlights included appearances with the Orchestre de Paris (Bluebeard), Berlin Philharmonic (War Requiem), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), Filarmonica del Teatro alla Scala (Mahler Lieder), Israel Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony (Wagner arias) as well as song recitals with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Schubert cycles with Christoph Eschenbach at the Vienna Musikverein.

2020s

In 2020, Goerne signed with Deutsche Grammophon for a trilogy of Lieder albums to be released in 2020, 2021 and 2022 with pianists Jan Lisiecki, Seong-Jin Cho and Daniil Trifonov, respectively.[14]

In 2021, German composer Detlev Glanert composed a setting for voice and orchestra of the poem Der Einsiedler (the hermit) by Joseph von Eichendorff especially for Goerne.[15] It was performed by Goerne and the Concertgebouworkest under conductor Jaap van Zweden to critical acclaim.[16]

Personal life

Goerne has an adopted son[17] born in 1989,[6] and a daughter born in 2000.[6] His first marriage ended in divorce.[6]

He smoked cigarettes "a lot" early in life, but stopped after noting the detrimental effects on his voice.[7]

Goerne is not religious, although he does "have beliefs".[18]

Views on music

Goerne has criticized the modern day relevance of opera productions, going so far as to state that most popular operas should not performed at all anymore because they have become outdated, no longer having "enough substance for the questions posed by our society".[19]

He has expressed a distaste for most contemporary art music from a vocal perspective, claiming that its focus on using the extremes of the voice, "singing very high or very low, very loud or very quietly", is not conducive to the expression of thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, he opines that this style of vocal writing makes pieces "boring and one-dimensional".[15]

Goerne has expressed a preference for working with solo pianists over pianists specialized in accompaniment, citing the former's superior artistic vision and the latter's relative lack of technical proficiency.[19]

Awards and honors

Goerne is a recipient of the Wigmore Hall, London, medal.[20]

YearAwardResult
1999Grammy AwardsNominated [21]
2000Grammy AwardsNominated [21]
2001Grammy AwardsNominated [21]
2013Edison Vocal Soloist AwardWon [22]
2014BBC Music Magazine Vocal AwardNominated [23]
2014Diapason d'OrWon [12]
2014ICMA AwardsWon [24]
2017BBC Music Magazine Vocal AwardWon [25]
2017Gramophone Solo Vocal AwardWon [26]
2017ECHO Klassik Male SingerWon [27]
2020Edison Vocal Soloist AwardWon [28]
2020Diapason d'OrWon [29]
2020Grammy AwardsNominated [21]

References
  1. "Matthias Goerne - Oxford Reference". Oxford Reference. 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  2. "With Goerne, the art of lieder singing is in caring hands". Chicago Tribune. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. "Baritone's impressive voice isn't quite enough". Boston Globe. 4 August 2005. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  4. "Matthias Goerne". Münchner Philharmoniker (in German). Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  5. "Matthias Goerne – Biografie". Berliner Festspiele. 16 March 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  6. "Feature Article - "For Me, It Is Enough: Grammy Nominee, Baritone Matthias Goerne"". Home Theater Hifi. May 2001. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  7. "Interview With Matthias Goerne". YouTube. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  8. "Matthias Goerne on why the past is the way to find the future". Limelight Magazine. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  9. "Matthias Goerne: The voice mirrors the soul". Diapason (in French). 10 April 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  10. "Salzburger Festspiele > INSTITUTION > ARCHIV > Archivdetail". Salzburger Festspiele Pfingsten – 7. bis 10. Juni 2019 (in German). Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  11. "Matthias Goerne". Salzburger Festspiele (in German). Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  12. "Disques : le palmarès des Diapason d'or de l'année 2014 en un coup d'œil". Diapason (in French). 25 November 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  13. Laurson, Jens F. (17 February 2014). "Authentic Pretenses: Parsifal in Madrid – Seen and Heard International". Seen and Heard International. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  14. "Songs of Love, Life and Death: Matthias Goerne Concludes his Lieder Trilogy with Daniil Trifonov". Deutsche Grammophon (in Dutch). 22 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  15. "Bariton Matthias Goerne: 'Ik wil de muziek tot leven wekken met mijn levenservaring'". Preludium (in Dutch). 16 March 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  16. "Het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest speelt fantastisch onder leiding van Jaap van Zweden". Volkskrant (in Dutch). 25 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  17. "The Artist as a Moving Target". Financial Times. 16 May 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  18. "S & H Interview". Musicweb International. 2 August 2002. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  19. "The Calibrated Voice". Van Magazine. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  20. "Würdigung für Matthias Goerne". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). 19 February 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  21. "Matthias Goerne". Grammy Awards. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  22. "Goerne, Jacobs winnen vocale Edisons". Opera Magazine (in Dutch). 9 September 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  23. "Vocal - BBC Music Magazine Awards 2014". classical-music.com. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  24. "Winners 2014 ICMA". ICMA. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  25. "Winners of 2017 BBC Music Magazine Awards Announced". classical-music.com. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  26. "Gramophone Awards 2017: The Winners!". Presto Music. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  27. "Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufmann & Matthias Goerne Among ECHO KLASSIK Award Winners". Opera Wire. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  28. "2020 - Edison Klassiek". Edisons (in Dutch). 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  29. "Beethoven Lieder awarded with Diapason d'Or". Dorn Music. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.

Further reading
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