Josef Wagner

Josef Wagner
Baritone

The musical education of the Austrian Bass-Baritone Josef Wagner, born in 1975, began with a membership in a boys' choir and with violin and piano lessons. Later he studied singing at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, where he was inspired by Paul Esswood, Walter Berry and Christa Ludwig. His current teacher is the tenor Wicus Slabbert. After the debut with "Don Alfonso" ("Così fan tutte" and Dulcamara ("Elisir d'amore") Josef Wagner became a member of the Vienna Volksoper in 2002. His repertoire includes "Figaro" in "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Alfonso" and "Guglielmo" in "Cosi fan tutte", "Masetto" in "Don Giovanni", "Papageno" in "Die Zauberflöte" (Mozart), "Dulcamara" in "L'elisir d'amore" (Donizetti), "Publio" in "La clemenza di Tito" (Mozart), "Alidoro" in "La Cenerentola" (Rossini), "Colline" in "La boheme" (Puccini), "Philebos" in "Der König Kandaules" (Zemlinsky), "Fra Melitone" in "La forza del destino" (Verdi) and other roles. He performs at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Volksoper and the opera houses of Bern, Geneva, Ireland and Japan. At the Israeli Opera he sang Lord Sidney in Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini). In addition to his career as an opera singer Josef Wagner also performes as a concert singer. Thus he gave concerts under the conductors Ton Koopman, Dennis Russell Davies and Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Vienna's Musikverein and the Vienna Konzerthaus.
BRAHMS: A German Requiem, Op. 45BRAHMS: A German Requiem, Op. 45
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897):
A German Requiem, Op. 45

The "London Version" of "Ein deutsches Requiem" (sung in German)
for 2 soloists, choir and four-hand piano, arranged by the composer

with the Maulbronn Chamber Choir (Maulbronner Kammerchor),
Heidi Elisabeth Meier (Soprano), Josef Wagner (Baritone)
and the Piano Duo GrauSchumacher (Andreas Grau & Götz Schumacher)
Conductor: Jürgen Budday

HD Recording · DDD · Duration: c. 70 Minutes
Digital Album · 7 Tracks · incl. Digital Booklet

MP3

MP3 Album

320 kBit/sec.

EUR 9,50SpotifyDeezerNapsterYouTube MusicApple MusicAmazon.com MusicNaxos Music LibraryIdagioTidalAmazon.comiTunesQobuz HDeClassical HDPresto Music HDHD TracksE-Onkyo HDReview

A reference recording

Interpretation: ***** (5 out of 5)
Recording Quality: ***** (5 out of 5)
Status: Reference Recording

KULIMU - German Magazine for art, music and literature

Review

Magnificently performed and recorded...

Fine Reduction and Fine Performance
Brahms' own piano reduction of his Requiem. It works wonderfully in this format and this recording is magnificently performed and recorded. This will not replace the orchestra version (and certainly was not meant to) but it allows one to hear the work in a new way...

Bachjscpe on Amazon.com

Review

***** Certainly Five Stars!

Item getting today, 04/13/17. A very interesting interpretation of the famous Brahms German Requiem for piano duo, choir and soloists; the London version, in contrary to the later full orchestral, choir and soloists version. This chamber version makes this work more a delightful and receptable one during this Passion Time.

J. P. M. Smit on Amazon.com, April 13, 2017

Johannes Brahms · A German RequiemJohannes Brahms · A German Requiem
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897):
A German Requiem

Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

The "London Version" (sung in German)
for 2 soloists, choir and four-hand piano,
arranged by the composer, performed by

Heidi Elisabeth Meier (Soprano), Josef Wagner (Baritone),
Piano Duo GrauSchumacher (Andreas Grau & Götz Schumacher),
Maulbronn Chamber Choir (Maulbronner Kammerchor)
Conductor: Jürgen Budday

A live recording from the German
UNESCO World Heritage Site Maulbronn Monastery

HD Recording · DDD · Duration: c. 70 Minutes


CD
EUR 22,00SpotifyDeezerNapsterYouTube MusicApple MusicAmazon.com MusicNaxos Music LibraryIdagioTidalAmazon.comiTunesQobuz HDeClassical HDPresto Music HDHD TracksE-Onkyo HDReview

A reference recording

Interpretation: ***** (5 out of 5)
Recording Quality: ***** (5 out of 5)
Status: Reference Recording

KULIMU - German Magazine for art, music and literature

Review

Magnificently performed and recorded...

Fine Reduction and Fine Performance
Brahms' own piano reduction of his Requiem. It works wonderfully in this format and this recording is magnificently performed and recorded. This will not replace the orchestra version (and certainly was not meant to) but it allows one to hear the work in a new way...

Bachjscpe on Amazon.com

Review

***** Certainly Five Stars!

Item getting today, 04/13/17. A very interesting interpretation of the famous Brahms German Requiem for piano duo, choir and soloists; the London version, in contrary to the later full orchestral, choir and soloists version. This chamber version makes this work more a delightful and receptable one during this Passion Time.

J. P. M. Smit on Amazon.com, April 13, 2017

Louis Spohr · The Last JudgementLouis Spohr · The Last Judgement
Louis Spohr (1784-1859):
The Last Judgement
The oratorio "Die letzten Dinge"
based on verses from the Holy Scripture
in a complete live recording of the original version from 1826, sung in German,
with Miriam Meyer (Soprano), Ursula Eittinger (Mezzo-Soprano),
Marcus Ullmann (Tenor), Josef Wagner (Bass),
Maulbronn Cantor Choir (Kantorei Maulbronn),
Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg
Conductor: Jürgen Budday
A concert recording from the church of the German
UNESCO World Heritage Site Maulbronn Monastery
HD Recording · DDD · c. 81 Minutes
CD
EUR 22,00SpotifyDeezerNapsterYouTube MusicNaxos Music LibraryApple MusicAmazon.com MusicIdagioTidalAmazon.comiTunesQobuz HDeClassical HDPresto Music HDHD TracksReview

5 stars out of 5 stars

Customer Votes on EMusic

Review

Spohr'’s second oratorio concerns both:
the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement

This was Spohr’s second oratorio and was written in Kassel between 1825 and 1826. The libretto, in two parts, was by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769-1842) and concerns both the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement. The overture is a powerful utterance, finely put together, and orchestrated adeptly. The choral entries are often arresting, and the accompanied recitatives show awareness of oratorio antecedents but are sufficiently flexible to convince on their own terms. At its best the work impresses through a felicitous sense of word-setting and layering; the choral responses are indeed sensitively shaped. The fourth movement, with a tenor solo and chorus, calls for a repeated ‘Heilig’ and the chorus’s soft, reverential repetition vests the music with great reflectiveness and elegiac quality. Then too Spohr doesn’t stint the opportunities for some good old-fashioned fugal development. Its employment halts the narrative somewhat but is certainly incisive; that in the seventh section is very definitely reminiscent of Handel. Spohr shows in the Sinfonia introduction to the second part just how well he wrote for orchestral forces and in the Babylonian chorus (No.15) demonstrates a sure instinct for the dramatic crest of a movement. In the concluding fugal Hallelujah section he reprises the kind of Handelian statements he’d earlier established in the first part of the oratorio. There are some Mozartian touches here and there, more stentorian Beethovenian ones too, in addition to the sometimes pervasive Handelian aspect. ...

Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb International - www.musicweb-international.com

Review

Qobuz Hi-Res Audio

Awarded by Qobuz with the "Hi-Res Audio" March 2012.

Qobuz

Review

The listener is engrossed in what is going on from first note to last

This enterprising German label has recently served up some wonderfully crafted chamber and choral performances and this discovery by Spohr is no exception. Apparently 'The Last Judgement' (Die letzten Dinge - 1825/6) was an extremely popular oratorio in its heyday but it unfortunately fell by the wayside and is little heard today. Spohr treats the text with reverence and respect and although the music rarely rises above the mundane, the soloists and Budday ensure that the listener is engrossed in what is going on from first note to last. This is a worthwhile revival from the Spohr canon which deserves much wider currency.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

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