Christian Gerhaher

Hiromichi Yamamoto

During his studies under Paul Kuen and Raimund Grumbach, German baritone Christian Gerhaher also attended the Opera School of the Academy of Music in Munich, and together with his regular piano partner Gerold Huber studied lied interpretation with Friedemann Berger. While completing his medical studies Christian Gerhaher perfected his vocal training in master-classes given by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Inge Borkh. In the meantime Christian Gerhaher is himself an enthusiastic teacher and gives master-classes at Aldeburgh Festival, Yale University, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, at the Schwetzingen Festival, and in his position as honorary professor he holds workshops at the Academy of Music in Munich.

Christian Gerhaher’s exemplary lied interpretations with Gerold Huber set standards, and their recordings have been highly acclaimed. Their Schubert album Abendbilder received the famous Gramophone Award in 2006. In the same
year Christian Gerhaher was honoured with the NDR Musikpreis at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. 2009 turned out to be a year especially rich in awards: In Germany, he was granted the renowned Rheingau Musikpreis and for his Schumann recording Melancholy he not only received the BBC Music Award but also the "Echo Klassik" in the category Singer of the Year.

The lied duo can be heard on the stages of major international recital centres, for instance at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Christian Gerhaher is a regular guest at Schwetzingen Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Vienna Festival, Klangbogen Festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the London Proms, the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals, as well as the Aspen and Tanglewood Festivals in the USA.

The lied recitals of the current season are dedicated to Gustav Mahler. Performances will take them to London, Amsterdam, Cologne, Dortmund, Madrid, Munich, Venice, Torino and they will also return to the Rheingau Musik Festival.

Besides his principle activity giving concerts and recitals, Christian Gerhaher also performs in select opera productions, for instance, he has a particularly close association with the Frankfurt Opera House. Under Riccardo Muti he was Papageno in a production of The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival in 2006 (issued by Decca as a DVD). Gerhaher is giving guest performances in the title role in Henze’s Prinz von Homburg at the Theater an der Wien, as Wolfram at the Teatro Real Madrid, at the Vienna State Opera and Munich State Opera, and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. He begins the 2010/2011 season as the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in Munich. In the more distant future he is scheduled to sing the role of Eisenstein and Pelléas, both in Frankfurt, and Posa in Don Carlos in Toulouse.

Christian Gerhaher has performed together with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert Blomstedt, Heinz Holliger, Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez and Christian Thielemann in the
world’s major concert halls. In 2008 the music of Gustav Mahler brought him together with Riccardo Chailly (Wunderhornlieder with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester), Daniel Harding (Das Lied von der Erde with the Bavarian
Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Gustavo Dudamel (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at La Scala Milan). Other major orchestras which regularly invite Christian Gerhaher to perform include Concentus Musicus Wien, Berlin, Munich and Vienna Philharmonic, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He also gives concerts with major orchestras outside Europe, including NHK Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Since the beginning of his recording activity Christian Gerhaher’s CDs have been issued by Sony Music, with which he has an exclusive partnership (exceptions are stated in brackets). With his accompanist Gerold Huber, Schumann cycles, all the Schubert cycles as well as many other lied recordings have been issued, such as for example Terezín Theresienstadt with Anne Sophie von Otter (Deutsche Grammophon). Furthermore, Christian Gerhaher can be heard on CDs singing in orchestral works: Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, Orff’s Carmina burana with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle (EMI). And under Nikolaus Harnoncourt Christian Gerhaher has made recordings of Joseph Haydn’s two oratorios The Creation and The Seasons as well as Orlando paladino, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Schumann’s Das Pardies und die Peri and also the recording of the live concert performance of the Faust Scenes with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, on the orchestra’s own label RCO Live. A concert recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano has just been issued on CD. In spring 2010 Christian Gerhaher will again record Carmina burana, this time with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Daniel Harding for Deutsche Grammophon. In the autumn of 2009 the latest CD with Gerold Huber will be issued, a recording of songs by Gustav Mahler, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), the Rückert-Lieder and others.

Christian Gerhaher lives with his wife and his three children in Munich.

Christian Gerhaher appears for the first time with the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER.