Philippe Herreweghe conducts Dvořák

Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and studied at both the university and music conservatory there. During this period he started conducting and founded Collegium Vocale Gent in 1970.

Philippe Herreweghe’s energetic, authentic and rhetorical approach to baroque music was soon drawing praise. In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with whom he performed music of the French Golden Age. He founded several ensembles with whom he made historically appropriate and well-thought-out interpretations of repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary music. They include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialised in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of playing pre-Romantic and Romantic repertoire on original instruments.Last season Philippe Herreweghe, together with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Andrew Staples, presented Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in historic timbres.

Highlights of the 2023/24 season included guest appearances with the Munich Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin as well as the Philharmonia Orchestra London. Together with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, he toured Europe with the Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In addition, Herreweghe presented Bach’s Mass in B minor at Europe’s leading Festivals and conducted St Matthew Passion in Katowice, Hamburg and Munich among others.

In September 2021, Philippe Herreweghe will return to the Musikfest Bremen with concerts together with Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Collegium Vocale Gent. Having already made his Musikfest debut in 1996 with the choir and orchestra of the Collegium Vocale Gent, he will be honoured in 2021 with the Musikfest Award Bremen for his outstanding artistic work. In addition, Herreweghe was awarded the “Ultima” cultural prize for general cultural merit by the Flemish government in the same year.

Philippe Herreweghe has received numerous awards for his consistent artistic imagination and commitment. In 1990 the European music press named him “Musical Personality of the Year”. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent were appointed “Cultural Ambassadors of Flanders” in 1993. A year later he was awarded the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. In 2003 he received the French title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 2010 the city of Leipzig awarded him its Bach-Medaille for his great service as a performer of Bach. In 2017 Philippe Herreweghe received an honorary doctorate at Ghent University.

“We have kept for the end the shining soprano of the Australian Eleanor Lyons, whose means are almost reminiscent of those of Gundula Janowitz in her best years. A straight and powerful voice, capable of the most delicate nuances, with seemingly unlimited highs.” Pierre Delgott | Resmusica

Australian soprano Eleanor Lyons studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Elena Obraztsova, Barry Ryan and Viktoria Dodoka, before joining the Mariinsky Academy for Young Opera Singers in St. Petersburg and pursuing her studies further at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She is a recipient of the prestigious Vienna State Opera Award of the Australian Opera Foundation.

Early on in her career Eleanor Lyons sang the role of Anne Truelove in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Hungarian State Opera, where she later sang Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème. After making her highly acclaimed debut as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Opera Australia in Sydney, and in a concert performance at the Jinji Lake Concert Hall in Suzhou (China), she went on to appear at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent as both Mimì and Gretchen in a stage adaptation of Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust.

Equally sought-after as an international concert soloist, Eleanor Lyons has appeared in Britten’s War Requiem with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra conducted by Philippe Herreweghe and the Noord Nederlands Orkest conducted by Stefan Ashbury. The soprano is in regular demand as soloist for Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, having notably performed the work in a Zurich Opera production staged by Christian Spuck as part of the Adelaide Festival 2023 and at the Zurich Opera House. Further collaborations have included Gustav Mahler’s 4th Symphony and Berio’s Folk Songs with the Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, and Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

Eleanor Lyons maintains a special collaboration with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, with whom she toured Europe for both Beethoven’s oratorio Christus am Ölberge and his Missa Solemnis. She also made her critically acclaimed debut with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony under Dennis Russell Davies and celebrated her first appearance at the Vienna Musikverein in Bruckner’s Psalm 150 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Petr Popelka. At the 2022 Festival Les Chorégies d’Orange, she appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under John Nelson as part of the French Bastille Day celebrations.

Most recent concert engagements have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under Kazuki Yamada, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 “Lobgesang” with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Marie Jacquot, Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, a New Year’s Concert with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesang” once more with the Balthasar Neumann Choir & Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock. Eleanor Lyons could be heard for the first time as Freia in two concert performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

In the current season, Eleanor Lyons will make her debut with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, where she will sing Leonore for the first time in two concert performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio under the direction of David Afkham. In addition to a bel canto gala with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Eleanor Lyons will also appear as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées conducted by Philippe Herreweghe as part of a European tour. Britten’s Les Illuminations and selected Mozart concert arias feature on the concert programme with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, while she makes her debut at Turin’s Teatro Regio as the soloist in Mahler’s Second Symphony under Aziz Shokhakimov. Eleanor Lyons looks forward to two further debuts as a soloist in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the Rundfunksinfonie-Orchester Berlin, and in Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada.

On the recital stage, Eleanor Lyons regularly collaborates with pianist Stanislav Soloviev, devoting herself primarily to the repertoire of Sergei Rachmaninov and his contemporaries.

Sophie Harmsen has become internationally successful both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage, delivering beautifully crafted, emotionally intelligent performances in a diverse range of repertoire.

An avid traveller, her career has brought her to experience some of the world’s most beautiful venues, such as the Teatro Colon, Palau de la Musica, Teatro Real, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Wien, Philharmonie de Paris, Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

Sophie regularly performs with orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, SWR Symphonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Orchestre National de Paris, musicAeterna, Konzerthausorchester Berlin Düsseldorfer Symphoniker NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and the Freiburger Barockorchester.

She has worked with conductors including Jeremie Rhorer, Thomas Hengelbrock, Ádám Fischer, Iván Fischer, Teodor Currentzis, Vaclav Luks, Jos van Veldhoven, Andreas Spering, Daniel Harding, Constantinos Carydis, Kent Nagano, Markus Stenz, Philippe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius, René Jacobs and Pablo Heras-Casado.

Many of her CD recordings have received awards, for example Bruckner’s Missa Solemnis with the RIAS Kammerchor (Diapason d’Or) and the complete recording of J.S. Bach’s Luther Kantaten with Christoph Spering (Echo 2017).

Some of Sophie’s recent concert repertoire includes Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Rückert Lieder, Dvorak’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Sophie is a frequent performer at international festivals including the Salzburger Festspiele, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Rheingau Musikfestival, International Händelfestspiele Göttingen and Halle and the Bachfest Leipzig.

Sophie Harmsen studied at the University of Cape Town and with Prof. Dr. Edith Wiens, has been mentored by Tobias Truniger for many years and now lives in Berlin with her family.

Swiss tenor Mauro Peter was born in Lucerne and completed his studies at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Munich. In 2012 he won both first prize and the audience prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau and made his highly acclaimed recital debut at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg with Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. He has since appeared as a regular guest at the festival and in leading concert halls and opera houses internationally such as the Canadian Opera Company, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra national de Paris, the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro Real in Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Zurich Opera House and the Salzburg Festival.

Among the highlights in recent seasons were a new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute (Tamino) at the Opéra de Paris and his Boston and Carnegie Hall debuts in spring 2022 with a concert performance of Berg’s Wozzeck (Andres) conducted by Andris Nelsons. Alongside numerous recital performances in the 2022/23 season, Mauro Peter could be heard in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mozart’s C minor Mass under Manfred Honeck in Rome, as well as in Bach’s St. John Passion under Stefan Gottfried and Concentus Musicus at the Vienna Musikverein. In summer 2023, the tenor celebrated two important role debuts, first at the Graz Musikverein as Eisenstein in a concert performance of Strauss’ Fledermaus, and with Concerto Köln, singing his first Loge in Wagner’s Rheingold under the baton of Kent Nagano as part of the Musikfest Dresden, at the Kölner Philharmonie, and the Ravello and Lucerne festivals.

The 2023/24 season began with Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesangs-Symphonie” with the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock in Tokyo, and with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Marie Jacquot at the Vienna Musikverein. This was followed by an appearance at the ZDF Advent concert in Dresden’s Frauenkirche under Christian Thielemann, as well as Haydn’s The Seasons under Jan Willem de Vriend, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Antonello Manacorda, Bach’s St John Passion with the Concertgebouw Orkest under Trevor Pinnock and then with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra under Masaki Suzuk. Mauro Peter additionally made his debut with Verdi’s Requiem in Lucerne. Most recently, he appeared on-stage as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Zurich Opera House and as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Semperoper Dresden.

Upcoming highlights include Haydn’s The Seasons in Copenhagen and at the Haydn Days at the Musikverein Graz under Adam Fischer, as well as Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Concertgebouw and the Gewandhaus Leipzig. He will also make his role debuts as Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival and as the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at the Semperoper Dresden. At his home theatre in Zurich, he will be performing the tenor part in a staged production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Mauro Peter is particularly devoted to the Lied repertoire, having appeared in varied recital programmes at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Salzburg Festival. In the 2024-2025 season, he will perform Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook alongside Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, the Frankfurt Opera and in Barcelona.

Following a recording of Die schöne Müllerin live from Wigmore Hall, he went on to release a debut album for Sony Classical in 2015, featuring some of Schubert’s Goethe settings, and a recording of Dichterliebe and a selection of other Schumann lieder in 2016.

The Croatian bass-baritone studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart.
OPERA
Krešimir Stražanac was 24 when he became a permanent member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House. He stayed with the house for seven years, where he acquired a broad stage repertoire.
The highlights of the past seasons include the title roles Orpheus (Telemann’s “Orpheus”) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona under the direction of René Jacobs and Ruggiero (“La liberazione di Ruggiero” by Francesca Caccini) at the Theater an der Wien under the direction by Clemens Flick.
His repertoire also includes roles such as Kreon (Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex”), St. Peter (Carl Orff’s “Der Mond”), Baron Tusenbach (Eötvös’s “Three Sisters”), Ping (“Turandot”), Harlequin (“Ariadne auf Naxos “) and Frank (Die Fledermaus) at opera houses such as the Bavarian State Opera and the Frankfurt Opera in collaboration with conductors such as Nello Santi, Bernard Haitink, Peter Schneider, Franz Welser-Möst and Placido Domingo.
Planned in 2022 and 2023 are the roles of the devil (Weinberger’s “Schwanda”) at the Theater an der Wien, a Robert Wilson-directed production of Handel’s “Messiah” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Ambrosio (Carl Maria von Weber’s “Die Drei Pintos” ) with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig conducted by Petr Popelka and König Froila in Schubert’s “Alfonso und Estrella” in the Musiikkitalo Helsinki conducted by Aapo Häkkinen.
CONCERT
In the 2022/2023 season, Krešimir Stražanac will make his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Kirill Petrenko.
As a concert soloist, he is a regular guest with important works from classical to contemporary music with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Tokyo and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden, the WDR, mdr and hr Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jonathan Nott have performed throughout Europe and Asia.
The collaboration with the conductor Philippe Herreweghe is very important for his musical career. With him and his orchestras he regularly sings as a bass soloist in Bach’s Passions, the B minor Mass, Brahms’ “Four Serious Songs”, the Requiem, Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri, Dvorak’s Requiem, the Masses by Schubert, Beethoven’s 9th symphony and many other works.
BAROQUE
He also often works in the baroque field and particularly likes to devote himself to the great works of Johann Sebastian Bach – with other orchestras such as Concerto Köln, the Gaechinger Cantorey, the Collegium 1704, the Concentus Musicus Vienna, the Academy for Early Music Berlin, I Barrochisti and conductors such as Hans-Christoph Rademann, Diego Fasolis, Peter Dijkstra, Vaclav Luks and Giovanni Antonini.
In February 2021, as part of the memorial concert for the destruction of Dresden in February 1945, he sang Bach’s solo cantata “I have enough” with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. A CD of this concert was also released by EDITION STAATSKAPELLE DRESDEN / GÜNTER HÄNSSLER in 2021.
2022. He debuts Bach’s Magnificat and Cantatas at the Bach Festival in Montréal, Canada, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki.
ART SONG
In 2021 he made his recital debut at Suntory Hall Tokyo with a Schuhmann – Spohr – Schubert program featuring Japanese pianist Kae Ogawa and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Akira Mizutani.
Other performances where he has sung recitals have been at: Bayreuth Stadthalle, Grand Théâtre de Dijon, Venice Casino, Zagreb Lisinski Hall, the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana, Zurich, Klagenfurt Konzerthaus and Stuttgart (Wilhelma Theater and Hospitalhof Halls).
His art song repertoire includes works such as Schubert’s “Winterreise” and “Schwanengesang”, Schumann’s “Dichterliebe”, Brahms’ “Four Serious Songs” and “The Beautiful Magelone”, Beethoven’s “An die ferne Geliebte”, Frank Martin’s “6 Monologues from Jedermann”, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and many others.
In July 2022, Krešimir Stražanac will also be a member of the jury of the 11th International Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Art” at the University of Art and Design Graz.
CD/DVD
Krešimir Stražanac’s discography now includes around 20 opera and concert publications, for example Beethoven’s “Fidelio” with Bernard Haitink (Don Fernando, BBC Opus Arte), Peter Eötvös’s “Tri sestri” (OEHMS CLASSICS), Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” (Konrad Nachtigall, QUATTRO LIVE), Bizet’s “Carmen” (Morales, DECCA), or the CD recording of Bach’s Johannes Passion with Bayerischer Rundfunk / Concerto Köln conducted by Peter Dijkstra (BR-KLASSIK).
Other recordings are: the video DVD/Blue-Ray recording of the staged St. John Passion (BR-KLASSIK 900514), Mendelssohn’s “Psalms” with the Munich Radio Orchestra (BR-Klassik (900519), as well as the DVD recording of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with the Gaechinger Cantorey (ACCENTUS AC20408), Handel’s “Messiah” with the Collegium 1704 (ACCENT), St. John Passion (PHI), “A German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms (COVIELLO) , Handel’s “Alexanders Feast” (SONY/ DEUTSCHE HARMONIA MUNDI), Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” (as aria bass, ACCENTUS) as well as CDs with works by Vatroslav Lisinski and Tomaso Cecchini in co-production with Croatian Radio (HRT).
The CD productions of Schubert’s “Winterreise”, a solo album with the pianist Jonathan Ware, a CD with works by the Swiss composer Fritz Stüssi and another solo CD are in preparation.

In 1970, on the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe, a group of student friends decided to found the Collegium Vocale Gent. The ensemble was one of the first to apply the new insights in the performance practice of Baroque music to vocal music. This authentic, text-directed and rhetorical approach paid attention to a transparent sound, as a result of which the ensemble soon made guest appearances on all the major concert podiums and music festivals worldwide.

Meanwhile, Collegium Vocale Gent organically evolved into an extremely flexible ensemble with a wide repertoire from different stylistic periods. The greatest asset is that the best possible instrumentation is brought together for each project. Renaissance music is performed by an ensemble of six to twelve singers. German Baroque music and especially the vocal works of J.S. Bach have been and remain a centerpiece. Nowadays the Collegium Vocale Gent performs this music preferably with a small ensemble, where the singers perform both choral and solo parts. More and more, the Collegium Vocale Gent also deals with the romantic, modern and contemporary choral repertoire. The Collegium has been supported by the EU Culture Program since 2011, and this has enabled the creation of a mixed symphonic concert choir in which young talents from all over Europe sing side by side with experienced colleagues.

To realize these projects, Collegium Vocale Gent collaborates with various historically informed ensembles such as the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, but also with internationally renowned symphony orchestras.

Collegium Vocale Gent is supported by the Flemish Community, the Province of East Flanders and the City of Ghent. From 2011 to 2013, the ensemble was an ambassador of the European Union.