Berthold Klemens Possemeyer (born 20 May 1951) is a German
baritone in opera and concert, and a voice teacher at the
University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main.
Career
Possemeyer was born in
Gladbeck
Gladbeck () is a town in the district of Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Gladbeck is quite a young town, first recognised 21 July 1919 when it was given town rights. The town established itself around five farming villages, Br ...
the son of a master baker. After graduating from the
Bottrop
Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail cent ...
gymnasium (today's ), he studied education and church music, conducting and musicology, as well as singing at the with
Franz Müller-Heuser and
Josef Metternich.
He has won prizes in singing competitions in Berlin,
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...
and the
International Bach Competition
The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (german: Internationaler Bach Wettbewerb Leipzig, links=no) is a music competition in Leipzig, Germany, held by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It was founded in 1950 and was held every four years from 1 ...
in Leipzig. He also received in 1981 a prize of North Rhine-Westphalia for young artists (
de). This was followed by master classes and private studies with
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the op ...
.
Possemeyer's debut as a singer was Papageno in Mozart's ' at the
Staatstheater Oldenburg. Later he worked with such orchestras as the
Berlin Philharmonic
The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
History
The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...
, the Radio Symphony Orchestras Frankfurt and Stuttgart, the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San F ...
, the
St. Petersburg Philharmonic
The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (russian: Симфонический оркестр Санкт-Петербургской филармонии, ''Symphonic Orchestra of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia'') is a Russian orchestra based ...
and the
Academy of Ancient Music in London with conductors such as
Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (; born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor.
Herbert Blomstedt was born in Massachusetts. Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Roy ...
,
Christopher Hogwood,
Neville Marriner
Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conductors". Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of the ...
,
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...
and
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', ' ...
.
In 1998 he was a soloist at the
Mainz Cathedral
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in the premiere of
Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a German composer and violist. After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he w ...
's
Passion music ' with the
Mainzer Domchor
The choir Mainzer Domchor is the choir at Mainz Cathedral, of boys' and men's voices. It was founded in 1866 by the then bishop of Mainz, Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler.
History
The choir of c. 140 voices is mainly concerned with the musical par ...
, conducted by
Mathias Breitschaft, as part of the '.
He performed the part of
Elijah
Elijah ( ; he, אֵלִיָּהוּ, ʾĒlīyyāhū, meaning "My El (deity), God is Yahweh/YHWH"; Greek form: Elias, ''Elías''; syr, ܐܸܠܝܼܵܐ, ''Elyāe''; Arabic language, Arabic: إلياس or إليا, ''Ilyās'' or ''Ilyā''. ) w ...
in Mendelssohn's oratorio in the
Marktkirche, Wiesbaden
Marktkirche (Market Church) is the main Protestant church in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, Germany. The neo-Gothic church on the central Schlossplatz ( en, Palace Square) was designed by Carl Boos and built between 1853 and 1862. At t ...
, with the
Schiersteiner Kantorei
Schiersteiner Kantorei (Schierstein Chorale) is a German concert choir, founded in 1962 at the Christophoruskirche in Wiesbaden-Schierstein. The choir performs regularly in the Marktkirche, Wiesbaden, and in Eberbach Abbey. It is known internatio ...
, conducted by
Martin Lutz
Martin Lutz (born 19 May 1950) is a German musicologist, conductor and harpsichordist. He was the musical director of the concert choir Schiersteiner Kantorei in Wiesbaden from 1972 to 2017, and founded the biennial festival Wiesbadener Bachwoche ...
.
Since 1988, Possemeyer has taught at the
University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, since 1990 as a professor.
Until 2003, he took over the singing training of choir directors, voice teachers, church musicians and school musicians. From 2003, he has been training singers for opera and oratorio. Among his students are Sabine Fischmann,
Markus Flaig
Markus Flaig (born 1971) is a German bass-baritone who has focused on concerts and recordings of sacred music.
Career
Markus Flaig was born in Horb am Neckar. He studied sacred music and school music, then voice with Beata Heuer-Christen in F ...
, and
Georg Poplutz
Georg Poplutz is a German tenor, a soloist in Baroque music, opera and oratorio, and a Lied singer. He has been a member of vocal ensembles such as Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and Cantus Cölln, and has participated in a project to record th ...
.
Musical comedy
Possemeyer has performed in collaboration with actor Till Krabbe and others in the field of musical comedy. They appeared for the
Rheingau Musik Festival
The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...
, but also in charity events. In 2007 they performed with singer Sabine Fischmann and pianist Marcus Neumeyer the chamber musical ' based on
Wilhelm Busch
Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.
Busch drew on the tropes of f ...
.
Called "", they staged in 2011 at the
Holzhausenschlösschen the chamber musical ''"'', playing all 26 parts of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in a parody, including songs of Shakespeare's time by
John Dowland
John Dowland (c. 1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", " Come again", "Flow my tears", " I saw my Lady weepe", ...
,
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...
and
Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley (1557 – early October 1602) was an English composer, theorist, singer and organist of the Renaissance. He was one of the foremost members of the English Madrigal School. Referring to the strong Italian influence on the Engl ...
.
In 2012, they performed ' ("And if They Haven't Died Yet ..., a Chamber Musical of all of
Grimms' Fairy Tales
''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (german: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, lead=yes, ), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first publi ...
"),
[''Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind ...'' is an allusion to a typical ending of German fairy tales ' (literally: "And if they have not died, they are still alive today"), the equivalent of the English ending "And they all lived happily ever after".] with songs by
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
,
Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
and
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
.
The program was performed in Frankfurt at the
Goethe House
The Goethe House is a writer's house museum located in the Innenstadt district of Frankfurt, Germany. It is the birthplace and childhood home of German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is also the place where Goethe wrote hi ...
and in Wiesbaden as a charity event for the ''africa action'' (
de).
Recording
In 1977, Possemeyer performed in a recording of Marco da Gagliano's ''
La Dafne
''La Dafne'' (''Daphne'') is an early Italian opera, written in 1608 by the Italian composer Marco da Gagliano from a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. It is described as a ''favola in musica'' (fable set to music) composed in one act and a prologu ...
'', with
Barbara Schlick,
Ian Partridge
Ian Partridge (born 12 June 1938) is a retired English lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Bach and Handel, the Elizabethan lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg, Weill and Britten, and on to conte ...
and others, of the
Monteverdi-Chor
The Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg is a mixed choir in Hamburg, the chamber choir of the University of Hamburg since 1961. Founded in 1955 by Jürgen Jürgens and directed by him until 1994, it is one of Germany's most famous concert choirs. The choir is ...
and Camerata Accademica, conducted by
Jürgen Jürgens
Jürgen Jürgens (5 October 1925 – 4 August 1994) was a German choral conductor and academic teacher. He founded and directed the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg, a pioneering ensemble for Monteverdi's music.
Biography
Born in Frankfurt am Main, Jür ...
. In 1990, he sang the bass part in a recording of Handel's ''
Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate
''Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate'' is the common name for a sacred choral composition in two parts, written by George Frideric Handel to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, ending the War of the Spani ...
'' with the Münchner Mottenchor and the
Münchner Philharmoniker, conducted by
Hans Rudolf Zöbeley. He participated in a recording of the
Carus-Verlag
Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart.
Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...
of the complete sacred choral music by Felix Mendelssohn, performing the
Christmas cantata A Christmas cantata or Nativity cantata is a cantata, music for voice or voices in several movements, for Christmas. The importance of the feast inspired many composers to write cantatas for the occasion, some designed to be performed in church serv ...
(From Heaven above) for soprano and baritone soloists,
SSATB choir and orchestra (1831). A review noted: "In his short devout aria ' the German baritone Berthold Possemeyer sensitively conveys appropriately restrained expression. Especially affecting are his closing lines '. Possemeyer is elegantly toned in his brief arioso '".
In 2003, he performed the
words of Jesus in
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hild ...
's
Passion oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
' (The blessed contemplation of the bitter suffering and dying of Jesus Christ) with the
Freiburger Vokalensemble and the orchestra
L'arpa festante
is a German chamber orchestra, specializing in the revival and performance of unknown works, especially from the Baroque era. It was established in Munich in 1983 by Michi Gaigg, who also led the ensemble as concertmaster until 1995. The ensemble ...
, conducted by
Wolfgang Schäfer
Wolfgang Schäfer (born 7 April 1945) is a German choral conductor and academic. He founded the Freiburger Vokalensemble, the BosArt Trio, and the Frankfurter Kammerchor.
Career
Born in Staufen im Breisgau, Schäfer studied music education, vo ...
.
References
External links
*
Wer Sorgen hat, hat auch Likör ... / Wilhelm Buschs "Die fromme Helene" als Kammermusical im Schloss Reinhartshausenegotrip.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Possemeyer, Berthold Klemens
German operatic baritones
1951 births
Living people
People from Gladbeck
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln alumni