Christian Immler

NEWS - Diapason d'Or for Steffani-CD 'Duets of Love and Passion' together with the Boston Early Music Festival released by cpo!

From the Tölzer Knabenchor as a boy alto to singing as a soloist all over the world, German baritone Christian Immler has spent years making music of the highest quality. Having studied at the Guildhall in London with Rudolf Piernay, Christian won the International Nadia et Lili Boulanger Competition in 2001, launching his career. 

Although known for singing Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Mahler, running down the spine of Christian’s career has been the music of JS Bach. Having sung the B Minor Mass, St. John Passion & St. Matthew Passion with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus as well as with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, he has also performed Bach with Philippe Herreweghe, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Michel Corboz, Jos van Veldhoven, Daniel Reuss & the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Raphael Pichon & Ensemble Pygmalion and Leonardo García Alarcón.

Christian’s recent projects include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Bergen Philharmonic, Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with the Orchestre National de France, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Magnificat with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), the St. John Passion with top US baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, Handel’s Dixit Dominus with Concentus Musicus (Ivor Bolton), Krenek’s Orpheus with Lothar Zagrosek (Berlin Konzerthaus), the Bach Magnificat and Mendelssohn Psalms with the Orchestre de Paris (cond. Thomas Hengelbrock), Mozart’s C minor Mass with Giovanni Antonini (Salzburg Festival), the world premiere of Hellstenius’s The moon eats humans (Bergen Festival), C.P.E. Bach Magnificat with Ottavio Dantone, Christmas Oratorio with Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Weill’s Berliner Requiem at the Lucerne Festival, Handel’s Messiah & Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor with Masaaki Suzuki/Bach Collegium Japan & Bach’s Missa Brevis in G Minor, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Fauré’s Requiem with the Gulbenkian Orchestra. 

As a recitalist, Christian has a particular interest in 20th Century ‘Emigré Composers’ such as Zemlinsky, Korngold, Eisler, Schreker and Gál. He has presented their works – as well as core Lieder repertoire by Schubert, Schumann and Wolf – in leading recital venues, such as the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Frick Collection in New York, Tonhalle Zurich and the Salzburg Mozarteum, the latter with pianist Helmut Deutsch. Their CD Modern Times was awarded the ‘Diamant d’Opéra’ and the prestigious ‘Diapason Découverte’. His recordings include Bach B Minor Mass, Schubert Sakuntala (‘Diapason d’Or’), Continental Britons (five stars in BBC Music) and Albeniz’s Henry Clifford, all released to critical acclaim. Christian is professor of voice at the Lausanne/Fribourg Conservatoire. 

Christian’s operatic roles have included Antinoo Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Seneca L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Consalvo in Handel’s Almira, Tiresia Niobe and Carnaval/Ordonatteur in Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise for the BEMF for the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), Docteur Itard/Vicaire in the world premiere of Fénelon’s JJR and Dodo/Frog Footman/Mock Turtle in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. He has also sung Ubalde Armide for Israeli Opera, Achis David & Jonathas (cond. by William Christie) & Pharnaces in Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. 

Current projects include Sprecher Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra de Dijon, Opéra de Caen, Opéra de Limoges, the Philharmonie in Paris and at the Festival d’Aix en Provence, Eremit Der Freischütz , the St. Matthew Passion with Bach Collegium Japan and the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de Espana, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Georges Starobinsky

Georges Starobinski is a musicologist and pianist. After taking his master degrees at the University of Geneva and at the Schools of Music of Geneva and Munich (piano with Harry Datyner, orchestra conducting with Arpad Gérecz and Hermann Michael), he worked as a coach and opera conductor at the Theater Basel (1987-90), as an assistant at the University of Geneva (graduation in 1996 with Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger) and was a full professor of musicology at the University of Lausanne (2004-13). In this function, he was responsible of his subject at the School of Music (HEM§U) and the Technical University of Lausanne (EPFL/Collège des humanités). His studies include subjects of aesthetics of music and questions of performance practice in the 19th and early 20th century, with a focus on the repertoire of the Lied, which he also cultivates as a pianist.

Song accompaniment has ever been a vital part of his musical activities since the time of his studies in Munich, where he accompanied the classes of Brigitte Fassbaender and Helmut Deutsch. He gave concerts with Brigitte Fournier, Irène Friedli, Stephan Genz, Philippe Huttenlocher, Shigeo Ishino, Angela Kerrison, Urszula Kryger, Stephan MacLeod, Sophie Marilley, Kammersänger Thomas Moser, Marcus Niedermeyr, Rudolf Rosen, Carine Séchaye, Mona Somm, Bénédicte Tauran, with the Zürcher Vokalquartett and the Basler Madrigalisten amongst others.

His long collaboration with the German baritone Christian Immler has been documented by a critically acclaimed recording of Heine songs released by BIS. As a song accompanist, Georges Starobinski participated on several occasions at summer classes with the singing pedagogue Eva Krasznai Gombos. He is currently teaching in the specialized Master for Liedgestaltung at the Hochschule für Musik FHNW in Basel.

He has been appointed President of the Jury of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition 2019.