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Highly praised for his warm, fluid baritone voice and his profound interpretations, Matthias Goerne is one of the most internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at renowned festivals and concert halls including Carnegie Hall, New York; Wigmore Hall, London; and Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Conductors of the first rank such as Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle, as well as eminent pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes and Alfred Brendel are among his musical partners.
Matthias Goerne performs with leading orchestras including the foremost American orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Tours and guest appearances have led him in recent years throughout the whole of Europe, and to the US, Asia and Australia.
Since his opera début at the Salzburg Festival in 1997, Matthias Goerne has appeared on principal opera stages in the world, among others, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. His carefully chosen roles range from Papageno and Wolfram
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Highly praised for his warm, fluid baritone voice and his profound interpretations, Matthias Goerne is one of the most internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at renowned festivals and concert halls including Carnegie Hall, New York; Wigmore Hall, London; and Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Conductors of the first rank such as Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle, as well as eminent pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes and Alfred Brendel are among his musical partners.
Matthias Goerne performs with leading orchestras including the foremost American orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Tours and guest appearances have led him in recent years throughout the whole of Europe, and to the US, Asia and Australia.
Since his opera début at the Salzburg Festival in 1997, Matthias Goerne has appeared on principal opera stages in the world, among others, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. His carefully chosen roles range from Papageno and Wolfram right up to the title roles in Alban Bergʼs Wozzeck, Paul Hindemithʼs Mathis der Maler and Aribert Reimannʼs Lear.
Goerneʼs artistry has been documented on numerous CD recordings, many of which have received prestigious awards. He is currently recording a series of 11 CDs of selected Schubert songs (The Goerne/Schubert Edition) for Harmonia Mundi.
From 2001 through 2005 Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Düsseldorf. In 2001, Matthias Goerne was appointed Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Born in Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig, and with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Highlights in the 2011/12 season include 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 among many others.
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Reviews
"If you are very, very lucky, you get to hear a performance every now and then that is so sublime in execution, so profound in expressive realization that it will have a place with you for the rest of your life. I felt I had one of those experiences Monday night in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, since I just can't imagine ever forgetting what happened when baritone Matthias Goerne sang Schubert's 'Winterreise,' partnered by Christoph Eschenbach at the piano. It represented for me an interpretive benchmark that I don't expect will be surpassed anytime soon. [...] The baritone produced a downright startling prism of tonal coloring along the way, often within a single, long-breathed phrase. [...] two artists with impeccable taste and uncommon insight gave a mesmerizing performance of 'Winterreise.' I felt privileged to witness it."
The Baltimore Sun
"There should be more artists this straightforward. Because on Monday, what Goerne offered was a wonderful, subtle account of Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise.” [...] The concert was an Event, a sold-out highlight of the Kennedy Center’s festival “The Music of Budapest, Prague and Vienna.” Goerne is one of today’s leading recitalists."
The Washington Post
"Baritone Matthias Goerne was a superb soloist in songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Goerne delicately animated the text, his voice glowing with a rich velvet tone. (Concert in Brisbane, with Vienna Philharmonic and Christoph Eschenbach)"
The Australian
"Baritone Matthias Goerne's warm, rich timbre was the perfect match for the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Mahler's multi-layered symphonic score showed off orchestra as well as vocalist, with Eschenbach and Goerne an excellent interpretive team, the conductor colouring an orchestral sound that was matched by an intelligently delivered narrative from Goerne."
The Courier
"Karl Amadeus Hartmann's unfinished 'Gesangsszene' requires for the texts from Sodom and Gomorrah by Jean Giraudoux a powerful baritone full of character, a baritone like Matthias Goerne. [Hartmanns] unvollendet gebliebene Gesangsszene braucht für die Worte aus "Sodom und Gomorrha" von Jean Giraudoux einen charakterstarken, stimmmächtigen Bariton, einen wie Matthias Goerne. (K.A.Hartmann: Gesangsszene. Berliner Philharmoniker/Skorowaczewski)"
Berliner Morgenpost
"The German baritone Matthias Goerne is a terrific opera singer with a warm, velvety voice. But he shines especially brightly in German art songs."
NPR (National Public Radio, Washington)
"Matthias Goerne, a hauntingly involved baritone. (Britten: War Requiem. Carnegie Hall, New York. Seiji Ozawa, cond.)"
The New York Times
"I can think of few singers capable of doing justice to the extraordinary final tableau, injecting as much emotion as Goerne does here, superbly accompanied by Christoph Eschenbach. (Hindemith: Mathis der Maler, Opéra National de Paris, Chr.Eschenbach)"
The Guardian