Contact
Kerstin Altka@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-235
Victoria Monterovm@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-237
General Management
Sarah Wegener performs almost every kind of repertoire, from her own lieder recital ideas to large new orchestral works. Looking back at her career, she is amazed how consistently its stations have emerged.
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 8
Sarah Wegener, soprano
David Afkham, conductor
Mandy Fredrich, soprano
Serena Sáenz, soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl, alto
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Simon O'Neill, tenor
José Antonio López, baritone
Christof Fischesser, bass
Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España
Sarah Wegener, soprano(Sopran 1 (Magna Peccatrix))
Robert Trevino, conductor
Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa
Orchesta Sinfónica de Navarra
Wegener’s ability is undisputed. Her vocal placement is flawless: she has a full range of ambitious tonal shading, a superb timbre that remains smooth even at a high volume, and perfect legato. Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Sarah Wegener approaches every role with captivating intensity. She has enthralled listeners with the warmth and richness of her voice in performances such as Strauss’ Orchestral songs under Mariss Jansons and Vladimir Jurowski in Munich, London, and Hamburg, Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Kirill Petrenko in Bregenz, Eliahu Inbal in Hamburg, and Kent Nagano in Montreal, as well as in her War and Peace programme shaped around works by Handel and Purcell, which she also presented at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival. Her “marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) distinguishes her as a lieder singer of the highest order, as illustrated on her highly praised CDs Into the Deepest Sea and Zueignung.
Her remarkable versatility has ensured long-standing collaborations with her musical partners, including the conductors Kent Nagano, Emilio Pomàrico, Peter Rundel, Tõnu Kaljuste, Heinz Holliger, Sylvain Cambreling, and Frieder Bernius. Concerts and recitals have taken her to the Salzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Festival de Lanaudière, Chigiana International Festival, and Handel Festival Halle, as well as the Suntory Hall Tokyo, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tonhalle Zürich, Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, and Royal Festival Hall London. She has sung leading roles at the Royal Opera House in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Festwochen, Theater Bonn, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and Tongyeong Festival in South Korea.
Highly regarded as a performer of both classical and Romantic repertoire as well as contemporary compositions, Sarah Wegener recently sang Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri (Jérémie Rhorer, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie), Dvořak’s Stabat Mater (Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Collegium Vocale Gent), Henze’s Floß der Medusa (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cornelius Meister), Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (Orchestre symphonique de Montéal, Kent Nagano), Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze), as well as Schönberg’s Six Orchestral Songs in Saarbrücken. She has given the premiere of numerous works by Georg Friedrich Haas, including the opera Bluthaus, for which she was chosen as Singer of the Year in 2011 by Opernwelt magazine. In 2021 she made her debut as Freia in Wagner’s Rheingold in Cologne and Amsterdam.
The 2022/23 season begins for Sarah Wegener with Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under Jacek Kaspszyk as well as with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding. Another highlight will be Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko at Royal Albert Hall. Further engagements include Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied in Porto, Bernstein’s Kaddish with the MDR-Sinfonieorchester and Dennis Russel Davies at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Elbphilharmonie and Philharmonie Berlin, works by Berg and Holliger with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra as well as songs by Alma Mahler with the Brandenburgische Staatsorchester. In May 2023 she will sing Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Juanjo Mena.
Sarah Wegener’s discography includes recordings of Boesmans’ Trakl-lieder, Korngold’s Die stumme Serenade, Mozart’s C minor Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, as well as works by György Kurtág, Elliott Carter, and by and with Heinz Holliger. At the OPUS Klassik 2019 she was nominated as Singer of the Year for Jörg Widmann’s work, Labyrinth III, in which the composer dedicated the solo part to her. Her second Lied CD with Götz Payer, with focus on Richard Strauss, is again on the list of nominations at the OPUS Klassik 2022. A recording of songs arranged by B.A. Zimmermann with the WDR Symphony Orchestra has recently been released at WERGO, and has been awarded the Choc de Classica (March 2023), Diapason d'Or and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Following her double bass studies, the British-German soprano studied singing with Prof. Jaeger-Böhm in Stuttgart and took part in masterclasses with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Renée Morloc.
Season 2022/23
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
...into the deepest sea!
with Götz Payer, pianoSongs by Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Edward Grieg, Jean Sibelius and other composers.
The sea has been a common theme in literature for centuries. Sometimes it stands for all things sinister and dramatic, at others for unrelenting loneliness and danger. At the same time it is a symbol of nature, its peace and serenity and of the uncertain and the concealed. In poetry, the sea is often a place of yearning and sometimes the place of death. Like love it is elementary and deep, like passion it is tumultuous. Each Lied on the programme has been chosen so that, detached from its original context, it can be understood as part of an ongoing story set at sea.
Wegener explores the depths of the soul and lets her marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour, and calm, perfectly balanced vibrato glide over the water conjured up by pianist Götz Payer, which at times delicately sparkles, at others swells powerfully like waves. FAZ 2017 – zur CD „Into the deepest sea“, CAvi 8553374
War & Peace
with Ensemble il capriccio (direction: Friedemann Wezel)
The cantata Il pianto di Maria, a cantata formerly attributed to Handel is the guiding thread of this programme. Lamento arias by baroque masters are combined with contemporary works, contrasting and merging into each other. In this way the topos ‘war and peace’ and man’s analysis of harm and mortality find musical expression.
Zueignung
Following their first recording Into the deepest sea, Sarah Wegener and Götz Payer were in the studio again for their next Lied CD in cooperation with SWR and CAvi. Praised as a specialist for Strauss, especially for her concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski as well as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons in 2019, it was only logical to focus on a Strauss programme this time. The CD was released in October 2021.
A selection of Strauss songs can be amended and combined with songs by e.g. Schubert, Schumann, Korngold, Reger, A. Mahler, Marx, Zemlinsky, R. Quilter and others.
We will be happy to send individually tailored proposals upon request.
SW LA Begegnung Strauss and others
"Sarah Wegener intones the delicate soprano solos flawlessly and with a smooth sound."
Tagesspiegel, Tye Maurice Thomas, 16 January 2023
"Sarah Wegener sings fabulously; one understands every word, she masters the highly dramatic outbursts just as naturally as the intimate, almost spoken word. [...] of unearthly dreamlike beauty."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 13 November 2022
“Sarah Wegener's lavish soprano with a broad spectrum and a wonderful timbre combines expressive intensity and flowing, often cantabile flexibility.”
ResMusica, Michèle Tosi, September 2020
“Wegener [proved that she is a very a fine ] Straussian, with a warm tone, and a telling yet understated way with words, which enabled her to suggest both the cool sensuality of 'Freundliche Vision', and the vulnerability of 'Allerseelen'. […] She did wonderful things with 'Morgen!', where her voice hovered in dreamy contemplation over the unfolding violin melody.”
The Guardian, Tim Ashley, November 2019, on Strauss Songs with Jurowski and LPO at Royal Festival Hall, London
“With a clear vocal core, Wegener's voice carried the sound up to the heights with ease while remaining present in moments of pianissimo.”
Bachtrack, David Renke, October 2019
“Sarah Wegener interpreted the six Strauss songs so beautifully and effortlessly that even following the encore the audience would hardly let her leave the stage. With a warm timbre and round tone, she achieves a soaring yet nimble expressiveness.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Paul Schäufele, October 2019
“Sarah Wegener sang the role [of the Peri in Schumann’s “Das Paradies und Die Peri”] with tremendous empathy and commitment, compassion and anguish; she was entrancingly musical.”
Donaukurier, Jesko Schulze-Reimpell, July 2019
“In songs by Sibelius, Grieg or Frank Bridge, Wegener explores the depths of the soul and lets her marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour, and calm, perfectly balanced vibrato glide over the water conjured up by pianist Götz Payer, which at times delicately sparkles, at others swells powerfully like waves.”
FAZ, Josef Oehrlein, December 2017, on the CD Into the deepest sea, released on CAvi
“[…] no one can resist this soprano, who enchants with her timbre, sensitive musicality, and sinuous legato.”
NDR Kultur, Markus Stäbler, December 2017, on the CD Into the deepest sea, released on CAvi
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra | Mariss Jansons and Sarah Wegener
Mariss Jansons conducts Strauss with Sarah Wegener
Rossini: Petite Messe solennelle
J. Haydn: Stabat Mater
(from approx. 54:00)
Recital @ Internationale Hugo Wolf Akademie
(from approx. 47:35)
E.W. Korngold: Was Du mir bist
R. Strauss: Beim Schlafengehen
Die drei Zigeuner, S. 320 (Arr. for Vocal and Orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann)
Elliott Carter: La Musique
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Wergo,2000-2018, 11044364
Awards: Choc de Classica, March 2023, Diapason d'Or, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award)
Sarah Wegener, Götz Payer
Cavi, 2021, LC 15080
Genuin, Jan 2021, GEN 21731
Hamburger Symphoniker
Hamburger Symphoniker, 2021, 10593631
Sarah Wegener, Kraków Philharmonic Chorus, Warsaw Boys Choir, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano (conductor)
BIS-2287 SACD, June 2020
Heinz Holliger, Sarah Wegener, Marie-Lise Schüpbach, Ernesto Morlinari, Philippe Jaccottet
EMC, 2019, EMC 2665
Sarah Wegener, Christophe Desjardins, Jörg Widmann, WDR Sinfonieorchester
Wergo, 2018, WER 73692
Cavi, 2017, LC 15080
Sarah Wegener, Marie Henriette Reinhold, Colin Balzer, Sebastian Noack, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (conductor)
Carus, 2017, Carus 83.281
Sarah Wegener, Sophie Harmsen, Colin Balzer, Felix Rathgeber, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (conductor)
Carus, 2016, Carus 83.284
Sarah Wegener, Johanna Winkel, Sophie Harmsen, Andreas Weller, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (conductor)
Carus, 2013, Carus 83.293
Kirchheimer Vokal-Consort, Tõnu Kaljuste
Carus, 2012, Carus 83.406
Romantische Oper in zwei Akten, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (conductor)
Carus, 2012, Carus 83.296
Orchesterwerke und Arien, Sarah Wegener, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (conductor)
Carus, 2011, Carus 83.228