Ian Bostridge
He is not a good singer; he is a great one.
The New Yorker, Alex Ross
Bostridge’s commanding performance on Saturday reflected his long history with the piece, which he kept impressively alive and spontaneous here…As an interpreter, Bostridge emphasizes the cracks and fissures of a piece that ambitiously embraces narrative and anti-narrative, music and anti-music, hope and desperation. Although he has matured since his first encounters with Winterreise, the tenor managed to create an ageless protagonist at Herbst, a character who could move in an instant from the quivering hotheadedness of youth to the world-weariness of old age, from Hamlet to Lear. Bostridge’s strength lies in his ability to bring out the music’s constantly shifting moods…He paid fastidious attention to textual detail. The German diction was crisp, every poetic verse finely chiseled and variegated…In “Der Lindenbaum” (The linden tree), a folklike ballad about the peacefulness of nature, Bostridge achieved a remarkable blend of self-assured fullness and intimate delicacy, which yielded precipitously to the burning grief of “Wasserflut” (Flood)…On Saturday, Bostridge proved that this devastating work is worth hearing again (and again and again), not because it is a universal story but because it is such a particular one. By confronting head-on the crags and rivulets of this nameless protagonist’s psyche, the hope is that we may learn something about ourselves.
San Francisco Classical Voice, Simon Cohen
As the Evangelist, Ian Bostridge offered a dramatic reading…His range is perfect for the role, his extreme upper register almost trumpet-like; and angst and Bostridge are musical friends, given his speciality is Schubert’s Winterreise. His diction, too, was nicely allied to the dramatic delivery, tracing natural speech rhythms.
Seen and Heard International, Colin Clarke
Although – as far as I’m concerned – he is also almost unsurpassed among the tenors as a singer for the romantic repertoire, as an authentic British singer this repertoire is literally perfect for him…In addition to a selection from Along the field and the better-known On Wenlock Edge by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bostridge performed songs by Peter Warlock and a long lament by Felix White: The Nymph’s Complaint for the Death of her Fawn (1922). A text by Andrew Marvell about the death of the nymph’s favorite deer killed by hunters. Bostridge clearly felt like a fish in water in the chosen repertoire. With his typical, almost nonchalant but at the same time confident spontaneity, he made music in absolute harmony with the chamber ensemble that was his ideal partner. The somewhat wry, sometimes bitter sound of his voice never stands in the way of flexibility. It is an aspect of his fascination as a singer and it perfectly emphasized the content of the songs here, but it does not prevent him from making flawless transitions from high tonality to deep sounds. The voice carries and remains intact. This recital proved once again what a phenomenal voice control Bostridge possesses. Combined with the repertoire that suits him particularly well, the recital became a truly top experience.
Klassiek Centraal, Lucrèce Mackelbergh
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Ian Bostridge’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras, and opera houses in the world. Synonymous with the works of Schubert and Britten, his recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade Festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. In opera, Ian Bostridge has received particular praise for his interpretation of Aschenbach Death in Venice at the Deutsche Oper and Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw for Teatro alla Scala.
Ian Bostridge has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, the Barbican, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and Hamburg Laeiszhalle. He also has participated in a Carte-Blanche series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, and the inaugural Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. The acclaimed tenor has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Sir Donald Runnicles among many others.
Highlights of the 2023-24 season include artistic residencies for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and as Duo Artist in Residence at LIED Basel with Julius Drake. His plans include Les nuits d’Eté with Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, Matthäus-Passion with Musikkollegium Winterthur led by Roberto González-Monjas, with Capella Cracoviensis and with Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Jarosław Thiel, Les Illuminations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Gergely Madaras, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and Christoph Koncz, and Johannes-Passion with l’Orchestre national d’Auvergne and Henri Chalet.
Additionally, appearances of the current season include performances with Camerata Bern, the Oberon Trio at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, and Les Talens Lyriques with Christophe Rousset. Elsewhere, he undertakes a Japanese concert tour with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra led by Matthias Bamert, a Korean concert tour of Les Illuminations with the Sejong soloists, and he repeats his acclaimed ‘Tormento d’amore’ program on tour with Capella Neapolitana. Recitals include appearances at the Wigmore Hall with Andreas Haefliger and Dame Imogen Cooper, the Fundação Centro Cultural de Belém with Luís Duarte, the Herbst Theatre and Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa with Wenwen Du, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Juliusz Sowacki Theatre Krakow, and the Beethovenhaus Bonn with Saskia Giorgini, the Settimane Musicali di Ascona Festival with Dame Imogen Cooper, as well as the Stadtkirch Brugg, Theatre Royal Bath, Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti Rome, LIED Basel and on tour in Japan with long-time collaborator, Julius Drake.
His recording catalogue has won all the major international record prizes and he is the recipient of 15 Grammy Award nominations. His recording for Pentatone of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the Vocal Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Recent albums include Respighi Songs and Die schöne Mullerin with Saskia Giorgini for Pentatone, Tormento d’Amore, Shakespeare songs (Grammy Award, 2017) and Requiem: The Pity of War with Sir Antonio Pappano for Warner Classics, as well as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, and Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire, arranged by John Adams, with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Recent releases on the Pentatone label include The Folly of Desire with Brad Mehldau and Schwanengesang with Lars Vogt.
An internationally celebrated author and academic, Ian Bostridge’s Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession was published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014, and his most recent book Song and Self was published in 2023. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honors.
Vivaldi: Farnace, RV 711, Act II: "Gelido in ogni vena"
The Dark Mirror: Zender’s Winterreise - with Ian Bostridge & Britten Sinfonia
Britten: Les illuminations, Op 18
Contact
General Management
Sue Spence, Askonas Holt Limited
New Wing, Somerset House, Strand
London WC2R 1LA UK
Tel: ++44 20 7400 1700
Email: [email protected]
Management (The Americas)
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station, Post Office Box 230132
New York, New York 10023
Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: [email protected]