Sarah Wegener, Philipp Mathmann, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart & Frieder Bernius
Biography Sarah Wegener, Philipp Mathmann, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart & Frieder Bernius
Sarah Wegener
approaches every role with captivating intensity. She has enthralled listeners with the warmth and richness of her voice in performances such as Strauss’ Orchestral songs under Mariss Jansons and Vladimir Jurowski in Munich, London, and Hamburg, Strauss’ Four Last Songs under Daniel Harding, Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Kirill Petrenko, Vasily Petrenko, James Conlon, Eliahu Inbal, and Kent Nagano as well as in her War and Peace programme shaped around works by Handel and Purcell. Her “marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) distinguishes her as a lieder singer of the highest order, as illustrated on her highly praised CDs Into the Deepest Sea and Zueignung.
Her remarkable versatility has ensured long-standing collaborations with her musical partners, including the conductors Kent Nagano, Emilio Pomàrico, Peter Rundel, Tõnu Kaljuste, Heinz Holliger, Sylvain Cambreling, and Frieder Bernius. Concerts and recitals have taken her to the Salzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Festival de Lanaudière, Chigiana International Festival, and Handel Festival Halle, as well as the Suntory Hall Tokyo, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tonhalle Zürich, Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Albert Hall, and Royal Festival Hall London. She has sung leading roles at the Royal Opera House in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Festwochen, Theater Bonn, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and Tongyeong Festival in South Korea.
Highly regarded as a performer of both classical and romantic repertoire as well as contemporary compositions, Sarah Wegener recently sang Schumanns Das Paradies und die Peri (Jérémie Rhorer, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie), Dvořak’s Stabat Mater (Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Collegium Vocale Gent), Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (Orchestre symphonique de Montéal, Kent Nagano), Bernstein’s Kaddish (MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Dennis Russel Davies), as well as Schönberg’s Six Orchestral Songs in Saarbrücken. She has given the premiere of numerous works by Georg Friedrich Haas, including the opera Bluthaus. In 2021 she gave her debut as Freia in Wagner’s Rheingold in Cologne and Amsterdam.
In 2023/24 Sarah Wegener sings Sibelius with the Gewandhausorchester under Andris Nelsons, Heinz Holligers Dämmerlicht in Japan, as well as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Madrid and Granada. Among her highlights of the season are a recital in Siena with a programme dedicated to Wagner and his Italian contemporaries, and Strauss’ Four Last Songs in Taipei. She will also give her role debut as Sieglinde in Wagner’s Walküre in concert performances in Prague, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Amsterdam and Lucerne.
Sarah Wegener’s discography includes recordings of Boesmans’ Trakl Lieder, Korngold’s Die stumme Serenade, Mozart’s C minor Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, as well as works by György Kurtág, Elliott Carter, and by and with Heinz Holliger. At the OPUS Klassik 2019 she was nominated as Singer of the Year for Jörg Widmann’s work, Labyrinth III, in which the composer wrote the solo part for her. Her second Lied CD with Götz Payer, with focus on Richard Strauss, was again on the list of nominations at the OPUS Klassik 2022. A recording of songs arranged by B.A. Zimmermann with the WDR Symphony Orchestra has recently been released at WERGO and awarded the Choc de Classica, Diapason d’OR as well as the German Record Critics' Prize. In September 2023 Hans Werner Henze’s Oratory The Raft of the Medusa with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under Cornelius Meister has been released.
Following her double bass studies, the British-German soprano studied singing with Prof. Jaeger-Böhm in Stuttgart and took part in masterclasses with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Renée Morloc.
Philipp Mathmann
“Mathmann is the man for the extreme heights this evening with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Especially in the soprano regions, where the air becomes thin, his head voice blossoms once more and acquires a radiance about which one can only marvel…” – Badische Zeitung, Georg Rudiger – January 2022
“…the “Beauty” (La Bellezza) finds an adequate interpreter in Philipp Mathmann due to his voice full of variations. Acting-wise, the numerous faces of Beauty – from the girl and the dissolute old woman to the young and later demented monk – are brilliantly interpreted (by Philipp Mathmann).” – OPERNWELT, Alexej Parin – July 2018
“As Lepido, Philipp Mathmann puts his bell-bright countertenor to virtuosic use.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ); Werner M. Grimmel – July 2018
“Abel, the younger brother, is sung by soprano Philipp Mathmann with irritatingly beautiful, bell-clean naivety.”-Richard Lorber, WDR3 Opernblog – January 2020
Philipp Mathmann’s singular voice surprises with its self-evident high notes, its bright clarity, and fascinates with its intensity. The young German singer is now one of the most internationally sought-after countertenors of his generation.
Growing up in Lippstadt, he began his vocal training with Friederike Vomhof-Surrey and Heike Hallaschka. He worked for many years with Renate Faltin and Annette Goeres in Berlin, and has received important impulses from renowned interpreters such as Ingeborg Danz, Kai Wessel and Barbara Schlick, Antonio Lemmo, Nicholas Clapton and Dame Emma Kirkby.
Since his operatic debut in 2011 in the operatic pastiche “La Mara” at the Theater des Schlosses Sanssouci in Potsdam, Mathmann has been a regular guest at international music festivals, such as the Festival Winter in Schwetzingen, the Musikfest Bremen, the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, the MAfestival in Bruges, the Styriarte in Graz, the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Italy, the Tage Alter Musik in Herne, the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele and the Handel Festival in Halle.
Early music is one of Mathmann’s main loves. He has sung the leading roles of Anastasio in “Giustino” by G. F. Händel, Zelim in “La verità in cimento” by A. Vivaldi and Mirtillo in “Il pastor fido” by G. F. Händel, among others. In 2018, he made his Moscow debut as “La Bellezza” in a staged production of Handel’s oratorio “Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” at the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. He was the first countertenor in the world to take on this highly demanding soprano role and was nominated for the Golden Mask Award as “Best Opera Performer” for his interpretation. In 2020, at the Essen Aalto Theater, he took on the role of Abel in the staged version of A. Scarlatti’s oratorio “Cain and Abel”, directed by Dietrich W. Hilsdorf, which was nominated several times for the Faust Prize. Further opera engagements have taken Mathmann to the Semperoper Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, among others.
Philipp Mathmann can also be heard on the concert podium at prominent venues, such as the Kölner Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Konzerthaus Wien, La Seine Musicale de Paris and the concert halls of Dortmund and Freiburg.
Regular collaborations connect him with the most renowned, historically-informed ensembles, such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Akademie für Alte Musik (Akamus) Berlin, the Ensemble Questa Musica in Moscow, the Orkiestra Historyczna (“OH!”), Armonia Atenea, I Barocchisti, Ensemble 1700 and Concerto Köln.
His first CD recording, “La deposizione dalla croce di Gesu Cristo” by F. X. Richter with the Czech Ensemble Baroque in 2017, was followed by numerous radio and television productions with ARTE, Hessischer Rundfunk, WDR, Dutch Classical Radio (NPO Radio 4), Moscow 24 and Deutschlandfunk among others. He collaborates regularly with eminent conductors, such as George Petrou, Christophe Rousset, Gianluca Capuano, Philipp Chizhevskiy, Martyna Pastuszka, Dorothee Oberlinger, Rubén Dubrovsky and Diego Fasolis.
His highly-acclaimed debut solo CD (“Tormenti d’Amore”), released in 2020, features four love cantatas by Baroque and Viennese Classical composers (J.A. Hasse, G. Porsile and J.G. Reutter), three of which are world premiere recordings.
Mathmann’s repertoire is, however, not limited to early music. In the 2021/2022 season, for example, he took on the role of the Angel in the world premiere of Thorsten Rasch’s “Die andere Frau” at the Semperoper Dresden and the role of the Scorpion Man in Jörg Widmann’s “Babylon” at the International May Festival at the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden.
Philipp Mathmann is a “Jugend Musiziert” national prize winner and was a multiple prize winner at the international Giulio Perotti Singing Competition. He received scholarships to the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, the Musikhochschule in Detmold and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.
