Christoph Prégardien at the Liszt Academy

"His lyric tenor voice had a youthful glow, yet he sang with a plaintive beauty and piercing insight" - claims The New York Times in its review on the tenor Christoph Prégardien, who is going to act as the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy on 12 April.  The unique ambiguity of a perfect intonation, firm vocal technique and a deeply human approach is the main feature of the performances of this German tenor. Born in Limburg an der Lahn,  he began his musical education as a choirboy. He went on to study singing with Martin Gründler and Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt at the Hochschule für Musik and then perfected his vocal skills in Milan and Stuttgart.

Prégardien is one of the most significant interpreters of Lieder, and - mostly by interpreting the jewels of Romanticism accompanied by the pianists Michael Gees and Andreas Staier - he has enraptured the audiences of many highly prestigious concert halls all over Europe. The singularity of his performances, however, do not only lie in his actual interpretation skills: since the 1990s, he has been singing and recording the song-cycles and individual songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms with the approach of musical historicism, accompanied by a fortepiano

Christoph Prégardien (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

Although he has also been active as an opera singer – he frequently featured as the hero of various Mozart operas (Tamino, Don Ottavio, Titus) or in other lyric tenor roles (Almaviva in The Barber of Seville or Fenton in Falstaff), it was with concert performances that he made a real name for himself. His oratorio repertoire spans a wide range from the great Baroque, Classical and Romantic Oratorios to 20th-century works, but he is most acclaimed for the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions. Perhaps the most complex, and – from a musical, vocal-technical and interpretational perspective - most challenging roles in a tenor’s repertoire are the parts of the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions, nevertheless, Prégardien did not only feature in these roles but also conducted these musical jewels. (On several occasions, Christoph Prégardien acted as the conductor, while his son, another excellent tenor singer, Julian Prégardien sang the part of the Evangelist), thus he is one of the most well-verged experts of the genre. His voice, intelligent but emotional interpretation in Bach’s St John Passion performed alongside the Ábrahám Consort and the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir conducted by Zsolt Hamar will certainly enchant the audience of the Grand Hall.