Scholl's voice is pure and beautiful in sound,
his taste exquisite, his pitch and diction
immaculate. It is inadequate to compare Andreas
Scholl to many other counter-tenors now working,
even the finest of them. Instead, one is
put in mind of legendary past masters." Fanfare
Already regarded as the outstanding counter-tenor of his generation for his remarkable discography and performances in concert, Andreas Scholl's operatic debut as Bertarido in Handel's Rodelinda during the 1998 Glyndebourne Festival Opera season was greeted with unprecedented critical acclaim. The Sunday Times said of his performance; "Scholl...rightly stops the show with the grave beauty of his alto voice and his rapt musicality."
Also In 1998, he signed an exclusive contract with Decca and his first recording for the label was a portrait disc of arias by Mozart, Handel, Mozart and Hasse entitled Heroes. Gramophone named the disc an Editor's Choice saying; "Heroes indeed! This is quite an exceptional recital in which one of today's most beautiful and imaginatively used voices is heard at its finest." His latest release is Pergolesi's Stabat Mater which was recorded with fellow Decca artists, Barbara Bonney and Christophe Rousset, conducting Les Talens Lyriques. Future releases will include a series of portrait discs covering repertoire from the 16th to 20th centuries.
Andreas Scholl has released a series of critically acclaimed solo recordings including the Deutsches Barocklieder and a highly popular disc of English lute and folk songs. Other recordings to date include Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Monteverdi's Orfeo and the 1610 Vespers and the 1997 Gramophone award-winning recording of Vivaldi's Stabat Mater and Antonio Caldara's Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, all under Rene Jacobs. With Les Arts Florissants and William Christie he has recorded Messiah and with Collegium Vocale and Philip Herreweghe Bach's B Minor Mass.
In concert Andreas Scholl works regularly with the world's leading Baroque conductors, and appearances include Messiah with Les Arts Florissants at the Aix-en-Provence Festival under Christie, Bach's B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio and Cantatas on tour with Collegium Vocale under Philippe Herreweghe, Bach's St John Passion and Cantatas on tour with La Petite Bande and Handel Arias with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra under Christopher Hogwood and with the Akademie fE Alte Musik, Berlin. At the BBC Promenade Concerts he has sung Julius Caesar and Bach's Magnificat with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Rene Jacobs, Bach's Mass in G with Collegium Vocale under Philippe Herreweghe and the title role in Solomon under Paul McCreesh. A committed and extraordinary recital artist, Andreas Scholl has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Cologne Philharmonie, Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Zurich, Theatre Grevin, Tel Aviv Opera, Purcell Room, Versailles, Beaune, Luzern, Turin and at the Sydney, Brighton, Lufthansa, Schwetzinger and Schleswig-Holstein festivals.
Highlights this season include Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman on tour to Paris, Vienna, Milan and New York, a week's residency with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Barbara Bonney at the Concertgebouw and recitals at the Sydney Festival, Cologne Philharmonie, Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio 3. In 2002 he plans to sing Bertarido in the Chatelet's production of Rodelinda.
Born in Germany, Andreas Scholl's early musical
training was with the Kiedricher Chorbuben.
Between 1987 and 1993 he studied with Richard
Levitt and Rene Jacobs at the Schola Cantorum
Basiliensis where he was awarded a Diploma
of Ancient Music. In 1992 he was awarded
the Conseil de l'Europe and the Foundation
Claude Nicolas Ledoux and he is also a graduate
of the Foundation Ernst Gohner and Association
Migros.
Somehow, among all the time spent learning,
rehearsing and performing, Andreas finds
time for his other passion, composing pop
music. He is an electronics fanatic, has
his own recording studio and spent several
of the breaks during the Heroes recording
sessions discussing the merits of different
mixing desks with the sound engineers. Most
of all though, Andreas values time spent
with his wife and baby daughter and feels
strongly about the importance of long-term
investment in music and arts education for
children, an area which he feels now suffers
seriously from the short-termist goals of
most politicians everywhere; "To move and to teach people: that's the meaning
of music."
He makes his long-awaited US recital debut
at Founders Hall, Orange Country in a programme
of Lute Songs and English Folksongs on 2
April. He will also make his West Coast concert
debut in performaces of Bach St. John Passion
with the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra under Nicholas McGeegan in Berkley
on 8 and 9 April, Walnut Creek on 12 April,
San Francisco on 15 April and Palo Alto on
16 April.
