Ethereal yet visceral, Scholl’s voice is the dream vehicle for Purcell . . . highly responsive to the poetic rhetoric . . .
BBC Music Magazine (London), January 2011 (CD review O Solitude)
“Andreas Scholl has the world’s most cultured counter-tenor voice. And during his three Handel arias some 6,000 people scarcely dared breathe.”
Richard Morrison in the Times (2005, reviewing the “Last Night of the Proms”)
Born into a family of singers in Eltville on the Rhine, near Wiesbaden, Andreas Scholl’s early musical training was with the Kiedricher Chorbuben. He later went on to study under Richard Levitt and René Jacobs at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He is a winner of the 1999 Echo Awards and Prix de l’Union de la Presse Musicale Belge (“Young Musician of the Year”), the Baroque Vocal Prize at the 1996 Gramophone Awards and the Middle Ages/Renaissance category of the 2002 Edison Awards for his recording of A Musicall Banquet.
1988
Sings in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Rüdesheim
1991
Bach’s St. John Passion under Philippe Herreweghe in Antwerp; German Baroque lieder at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade
1992
Bach cantatas in London at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
1993
Bach’s St. John Passion in Paris
1994
Bach oratorios in Antwerp (with Herreweghe), Milan and the BBC Proms; Handel in Monte Carlo (with Biondi) and the Beaune Festival; Monteverdi Vespers under René Jacobs in Tokyo
1995
Bach’s B minor Mass under Jacobs and Purcell on tour in France
1996
Bach appearances this year include Lucerne, BBC Proms (Herreweghe), Baltimore (van Veldhoven) and Berlin (Akademie für Alte Musik); Handel and Bach at the BBC Proms (Jacobs)
1998
Debut as opera singer in Handel’s Rodelinda (Christie) at the Glyndebourne Festival; Handel’s Solomon at the BBC Proms; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Milan and Antwerp; recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Brighton Festival
1999
Released this year: Handel’s Solomon with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players (Deutsche Grammophon); and first releases under his new recording contract with Decca: Heroes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Norrington and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Les Talens Lyriques/ Rousset
2000
Highlights include Heroes tours of Europe; Bach’s B minor Mass in Germany and on tour in Japan; St. John Passion in the US (Herreweghe). Releases: Vivaldi with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra/Dyer; Robert Dowland’s A Musicall Banquet
2001
With A Musicall Banquet and Wayfaring Stranger on tour in Europe and the US; Handel’s Saul (Jacobs) in Brussels; Solomon (McCreesh) in Paris, Lucerne and Cologne. Appearances at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, BBC Proms, Beaune, Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. Releases: Wayfaring Stranger, folksongs with Edin Karamazov and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
2002
Among the year’s highlights are his appearances in Handel: the title role in Giulio Cesare (Mortensen) at the Royal Danish Opera and Bergen Festival; Rodelinda (Christie) at the Paris Châtelet; Saul (McCreesh) throughout Europe
2003
Australian tour (Dyer); orchestral appearances include the Boston Symphony (Koopman), Basle Chamber Orchestra (Ottavio Dantone) and the Orchestra of
St. Luke’s (Koopman) at Carnegie Hall; English lute-song recitals in London and Cologne. Released this year: Arcadia with the Accademia Bizantina/Dantone
2004
European Arcadia tour (Dantone); Messiah in Los Angeles (Labadie); festivals include Göttingen Handel, Stockholm, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Bath, Beaune and Trigonale. Handel’s Saul (Gabrieli Consort/McCreesh) released on Deutsche Grammophon
2005
Giulio Cesare in Copenhagen; “The Renaissance Muse” in New York and London; Senesino tour (Dantone) throughout Europe; festival appearances at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Aldeburgh, Beaune, Trigonale and the “Last Night of the Proms”. Released this year: Arias for Senesino with the Accademia Bizantina/Dantone (Classical Brit Awards 2006, “Singer of the Year”)
2006
Handel’s Rodelinda at the New York Met; Giulio Cesare (Rousset) in Paris, Rome and Madrid; Dowland recital tour of Australia (with lutenist Crawford Young)
2007
European “Crystal Tears” tour (English consort songs); Messiah (Berliner Philharmoniker/Christie) at the Berlin Philharmonie; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Vienna and Salzburg; Vivaldi and Handel in Israel; birthday concert for William Lyne at the Wigmore Hall; festival appearances include Salzburg, Edinburgh, Santander and Beaune
2008
Handel’s Partenope (Mortensen) in Copenhagen; Giulio Cesare (Dantone) in Lausanne; Senesino concerts at the Salzburg and Dresden Festivals (Dantone) and in Sydney (Dyer); “Portrait of a Baroque Countertenor” (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with James Bowman) in Europe; Messiah performances (Koopman) in New York
2009
“Oswald von Wolkenstein” tour in Europe; US tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra performing Handel arias; European tour with the Basle Chamber Orchestra (Vivaldi); concerts with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and with Les Violons du Roi/Labadie in Québec and Montréal; and with the Ensemble Instrumental Colombiano in Bogotá. This year’s releases: The Lute Is a Song with Edin Karamazov; Handel’s Partenope from the Royal Danish Opera on DVD
2010
Giulio Cesare (Christie, with Cecilia Bartoli) in Paris; the St. John Passion in Munich (Koopman) and at St. Thomas’s, Leipzig; “Oswald von Wolkenstein” concerts at the Barbican, in Liverpool and Zurich; Purcell with Philippe Jaroussky and Ensemble Artaserse in London, Paris, Brussels, and with Accademia Bizantina at the Beaune Festival; Handel with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik; Mozart and Gluck with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Jacobs in Salzburg; recitals with lutenist Edin Karamazov in China; recitals with pianist/harpsichordist Tamar Halperin on tour in Asia, Istanbul and at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. Decca release this year: O Solitude, a solo Purcell album with Accademia Bizantina
2011
Handel’s Rodelinda at the New York Met; Bach’s B minor Mass under René Jacobs in Leipzig and Zurich; Purcell concerts with Accademia Bizantina in Birmingham, Manchester, Munich, Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, Vienna and Ljubljana and with the English Concert and Harry Bicket in the US; Australia-New Zealand tour in March; Italian Baroque cantatas in Israel with the Tel Aviv Soloists; recitals with pianist/harpsichordist Tamar Halperin in Barcelona, at the Wigmore Hall and the Bergen and Rheingau festivals
2012
Engagements include “Wolkenstein” concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium with Shield of Harmony, Bach cantatas in London, Birmingham, Amsterdam and Lisbon with the Basle Chamber Orchestra, a European tour in the Bach St. John Passion with Le Concert Lorrain and Christoph Prégardien, as well as Giulio Cesare with Cecilia Bartoli and Il Giardino Armonico at the Salzburg Easter and summer festivals. This years Decca releases on CD: Bach Cantatas 82 and 169 with the Basle Chamber Orchestra and Wanderer, a recital album with songs by Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Brahms with pianist Tamar Halperin (on tour with this programme throughout Europe and the US); and on DVD/Blu-ray: Handel’s Rodelinda with Renée Fleming from the Met
2013
Plans for the year already include the Bach Matthew Passion with Stephen Cleobury and the King’s College Choir, Bach cantatas in Vienna with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Pergolesi Stabat Mater in Lucerne with soprano Elisabeth Scholl and La Scintilla, as well as further recitals with pianist Tamar Halperin throughout Europe
7/2012