Christoph Altstaedt

Conductor

Biography

Christoph Altstaedt made superb debuts at Cologne Opera and Vienna State Opera last season. In Cologne, he conducted a couple performances of Benjamin Lazar’s new production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer; in Vienna, he conducted a full-company production of Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, performed alongside choreography by Martin Schläpfer with whom Christoph has developed a strong partnership since they first worked together during his tenure as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein. In 2021/22, Altstaedt conducted Schläpfer’s staging of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at Vienna Volksoper, returning this season for another collaboration together – The Moon Wears a White Shirt, a theatrical production comprising miniature stories performed to music by Locatelli, Ligeti, and Schnittke.

A popular guest of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Altstaedt has conducted them on tour in the UK, in their annual Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, and most recently in a London subscription concert featuring Beethoven’s complete Creatures of Prometheus. Upcoming and recent highlights from the last season include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Dortmund Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Ulster Orchestra, Krakow Philharmonic, Janáček Philharmonic, a symphonic tour with Opera North, and several special projects with the Gürzenich Orchester at the Cologne Philharmonie. Altstaedt also conducted the Staatskapelle Weimar, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Philharmonia Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Academy of Ancient Music, amongst others.

Altstaedt’s operatic successes include Finnish National Opera (Così fan tutte), Glyndebourne on Tour (La Traviata, having debuted with David McVicar’s production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Opera North (Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni), Theater Basel (Die Zauberflöte), and multiple productions of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Opera Zürich.

A highly respected educator and trainer of young musicians, this season Altstaedt tours with Australian Youth Orchestra to Sydney and Adelaide, conducting a programme inspired by “the grotesque” featuring Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and HK Gruber’s Frankenstein. In addition to his regular work as teacher and conductor at the Sibelius Academy, Hanns Eisler Academy and HfMdK Frankfurt, Altstaedt returned to the National Youth Orchestra of Germany in 2023 to conduct their recording project and tour which culminated in performances at the Cologne Philharmonie and Berlin Philharmonie (recorded for Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall). He also enjoys a good relationship with Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, having previously led their ground-breaking experimental projects #sacrelektro and #etruschka which combined Stravinsky’s symphonic music with live sounds from electronic artists. The success of this innovative concert format resulted in a tour of #etruschka to the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

Altstaedt’s unwavering commitment to bringing classical music to wider audiences has led him to explore new avenues alongside his conventional engagements. For Arte and the Ufa Filmnächte Berlin, he recorded film music for Carmen by Ernst Lubitsch. With Ensemble Resonanz he presented Faust by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau at the Salzburg Festival, and The Merry Widow by Erich von Stroheim at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

Previously, Altstaedt founded and directed the Junges Klangforum Mitte Europa (2004-2011), an orchestra consisting of young musicians from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany with whom he has won numerous prestigious awards such as the Praemium Imperiale for the arts, and the Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Reconciliation and Understanding.

Reviews

“Waldteufel’s Skaters Waltz is a concert regular, but Altstaedt brought out the elegance of ice-skaters beautifully, as he did with Eduard Strauss’ Telephone Polka […] Altstaedt’s urbanity and sense of humour, allied to the orchestra’s attack and urgency, made for an exhilarating concert” (Viennese galas with Opera North 2022)

Ron Simpson

The Reviews Hub

“German conductor Christoph Altstaedt made Webern’s analysis [arr. Bach’s Fuge from Ricercata] of the motif sound like a glowing march of colours, with the players breathing to the same pulse… Altstaedt, conducting without a baton, with his supple and expressive hand, was able to get close to the orchestra, which captured the symphony’s singing and dancing images with delicate nuance [in Honneger’s Symphony No. 4]… The fast-paced and responsive Altstaedt alertly prepared the orchestra for the symphony’s changes of direction.”

Hannu-Ilari Lampila

Helsingin Sanomat

“Christoph Altstaedt conducts with fleet elegance, orchestral playing is a tour de force of clarity and style…” (Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Savonlinna Opera Festival 2017)

Shirley Apthorp

The Financial Times

The whole is given flamboyant conducting from Christoph Altstaedt whose shaping of the Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra brings alive Verdi’s rich instrumental palette and dramatic pacing, illuminating accompaniments with telling colour and fashioning burnished Preludes, top notch and wonderfully characterised.

David Truslove

Classical Source

More Reviews

“From the first note of Suppé’s overture to Light Cavalry, Altstaedt crafted the sound, trumpet fanfares were brash without being harsh, expressive without being clichéd and articulate without being fussy. (….)Throughout the concert the orchestral sound was impeccably balanced, phrasing had a finesse and there was a refinement in the playing, testament to Altstaedt’s conducting.”

Bachtrack

“The whole is given flamboyant conducting from Christoph Altstaedt whose shaping of the Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra brings alive Verdi’s rich instrumental palette and dramatic pacing, illuminating accompaniments with telling colour and fashioning burnished Preludes, top notch and wonderfully characterised.”

Classical Source

It was the job of German guest conductor Christoph Altstaedt — in his Toronto debut — to make sense of it all. By the end, he had accomplished far more than that, giving each piece on the program its own due, with the eager co-operation of the symphony musicians.

Toronto Star