His lyrical tenor voice had a youthful sheen, and yet he sang with a plaintive beauty and penetrating depth.
The New York Times
Precise vocal control, clear diction, intelligent musicality, and an ability to reach the heart of everything he sings contribute to Christoph Prégardien’s position among the world’s most lyrical tenors. Especially revered as a Lieder singer, he begins the 2022-2023 season alongside his long-time accompanying pianist Michael Gees in a BBC concert at Wigmore Hall in London, before the pair perform in recitals on a tour of Japan with all three Schubert cycles. In other recitals, Christoph Prégardien can be heard with Roger Vignoles at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, with Julius Drake at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, at the Théâtre de l’Athénée Paris and the Schwetzingen Festival, as well as with Stefan Litwin on a tour of the United States. Together with his son Julian Prégardien, he has offered father-son concerts at the Oxford Lieder, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and with the Orchester de Chambre de Paris and Lars Vogt at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris. He also performs Mahler songs with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Darlington and Schubert arrangements by Brahms, Reger, Berlioz and Webern with the MDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. In the summer of 2023, he will be a protagonist at Wigmore Hall, as a featured artist, presenting two recitals with Stefan Litwin and Julius Drake, in addition to a special Handel program devised together with the baroque violinist Leila Schayegh and her group la Centifolia, which they will repeat at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Christoph Prégardien frequently plays with renowned orchestras around the world. He has worked with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies, alongside conductors such as Barenboim, Metzmacher and Thielemann. His extensive orchestral repertoire includes baroque, classical and romantic oratorios and passions, as well as works from the 17th to the 20th century. In opera he has played the roles of Tamino, Almaviva, Fenton (Falstaff), Don Ottavio, Titus, Ulisse and Idomeneo, among others.
His extensive experience singing evangelist roles, together with his close collaboration with conductors such as Nagano, Chailly, Herreweghe, Harnoncourt, Luisi and Gardiner, has created the perfect basis for his growing devotion to conducting Bach’s works. Following his successful debut as a conductor in 2012, directing Le Concert Lorrain and the Nederlands Kammerkoor, he currently conducts renowned ensembles such as the Balthasar-Neumann Choir, the Dresdner Kammerchor, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the RIAS Kammerchor.
The singer has recorded a large part of his repertoire on more than 150 albums, which have received awards such as the Orphée d’Or from the Académie du Disque Lyrique, the Edison Prize, the Cannes Classical Award, and the Diapason d’Or. For the Challenge Classics label, he has recorded Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Andreas Staier and Die schöne Müllerin with Michael Gees, which was selected in the Editor’s Choice category by Gramophone magazine and received the MIDEM disc of the year award. Shortly after, he made 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 Poetisches Tagebuch disc with Julius Drake received the 2016 German Critics Award. His most recent recordings include Telemann and Bach’s passion cantatas with the Vox Orchester for Sony (where he appears as a baritone for the first time), along with Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Michael Gees for Challenge. In collaboration with the Warsaw Chopin Institute, Christoph Prégardien released a disc of songs by Paderewski, Moniuszko and Duparc with pianist Christoph Schnackertz, as well as a new recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39 with Julius Drake.
Teaching continues to be part of Christoph Prégardien’s musical life. After many years at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich, he gives master classes for young singers around the world and since 2004, he has been a professor at the Academy of Music in Cologne.
Since the 2023-2024 academic year, he has been an associate professor of the Voice Chair “Alfredo Kraus” Fundación Ramón Areces at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.