Christoph Prégardien

His lyric tenor voice had a youthful glow, yet he sang with plaintive beauty and piercing insight. The New York Times

Precise vocal control, clear diction, intelligent musicality, and an ability to get to the heart of everything he sings all ensure Christoph Prégardien’s place among the world’s foremost lyric tenors. Especially revered as a lieder singer, he kicks off the 2024/25 season together with Hartmut Höll at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg/Hohenems before returning to the stage at the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, performing the programme ‘Father and Son’ with his son Julian Prégardien. A particular highlight will be the world premiere of Die Schöne Müllerin/These Fevered Days in Nuremberg with Ensemble Kontraste, for which Johannes Maria Staud has newly orchestrated Schubert’s songs and added seven new songs on texts by Emily Dickinson. Further concerts will take him to the Oxford International Song Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Blaibach, Alicante, LiedBasel and on tour with Michael Gees to Taiwan and Singapore. He will also appear with Dennis Russell Davies and the Brno Philharmonic in Handel’s Messiah, in Essen in Mendelssohn’s St Paul and return to the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig.

Christoph Prégardien regularly appears with renowned orchestras the world over. He has worked with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies, alongside conductors such as Barenboim, Metzmacher, and Thielemann. His wide orchestral repertoire includes the great baroque, classical, and Romantic oratorios and passions, as well as works from the 17th and 20th centuries. In opera, his roles have included, among others, Tamino, Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Fenton (Falstaff), Don Ottavio, Titus, Ulisse, and Idomeneo.

His extensive experience singing the Evangelist roles, together with his close working relationship with conductors such as Nagano, Chailly, Herreweghe, Harnoncourt, Luisi, and Gardiner, have provided the perfect base for his increasing dedication to conducting the works of Bach. Following the success of his conducting debut in 2012 leading Le Concert Lorrain and the Nederlands Kammerkoor, he now regularly conducts renowned ensembles like the Balthasar Neumann Choir, Dresdner Kammerchor, Collegium Vocale Gent, and RIAS Kammerchor. In the spring of 2024, he took to the podium for Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Vespres d’Arnadí and the Cor de Cambra del Palau in Barcelona.

The singer has recorded much of his repertoire on a discography of over 150 albums, which have received awards such as the Orphée d’Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique, the Edison Award, the Cannes Classical Award, and the Diapason d’Or. For the label Challenge Classics, he has recorded Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Andreas Staier and Die schöne Müllerin with Michael Gees, which was selected as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine and awarded the MIDEM Record of the Year award. Shortly thereafter followed recordings of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Julia Kleiter, ‘Between Life and Death’, ‘Wanderer’, and the Grammy-nominated Winterreise disc – all with Michael Gees – as well as ‘Father and Son’ with his son Julian Prégardien. His Schubert CD ‘Poetisches Tagebuch’ with Julius Drake was awarded the German Critics’ Award 2016. His most recent releases include one recorded in collaboration with the Warsaw Chopin Institute with pianist Christoph Schnackertz featuring songs by Paderewski, Moniuszko and Duparc, and a new recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39 (with Julius Drake). In 2023, the Etcetera label released an album of Bach cantatas recorded with Stephan Schultz and Le Concert Lorrain, featuring Christoph Prégardien as baritone.

Teaching remains an important part of Christoph Prégardien’s musical life. Following many years at the Zurich University of the Arts and a professorship at the Academy of Music in Cologne, he continues to give masterclasses for young singers around the world.

2024/25 season

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Instrumentation of Franz Schubert’s song cycle with seven new songs after Emily Dickinson by Johannes Maria Staud for tenor and large ensemble (2023/2024)

Johannes Maria Staud orchestrated the original work for large ensemble and added seven new songs based on poems by Emily Dickinson. The commissioned composition, realised in collaboration with ensemble KONTRASTE, Casa da Musica Porto/Remix Ensemble, and Wiener Konzerthaus/Klangforum Wien, combines historical and contemporary languages. Christoph Prégardien’s performance brings Schubert’s settings into the present and creates a dialogue between the two poets: Dickinson’s laconic lyricism acts as a modern counterpoint, questioning the original cycle’s romanticised image of nature and – for the first time – lending the character of the “fair maid of the mill” her own voice.