ConcertPulse
Thomas Quasthoff Quartet
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
For five decades, he has set standards on international stages and moved reached and moved countless people with his art. In the course of his career he has performed with all the leading orchestras and has appeared on all the major concert stages and at major festivals as a lieder and concert singer. A close collaboration with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmuth Rilling, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst. Thomas Quasthoff has been »Artist in Residence« at the Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, at Carnegie Hall, at the Lucerne Festival and in Baden-Baden, Hamburg, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre. He received numerous national and international honours, such as the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Three of his recordings have received Grammy and six have been honoured with the Echo Award. When Thomas Quasthoff brings his new programme »For You« to life, he is above all one thing – absolutely authentic. Quasthoff has a sure sense for the most suitable style of what he sings. This applies to opera arias, art and folk songs as well as jazz, pop and soul. He has long since proven that, as a classical singer with an enormously versatile bass-baritone, he can also master genres rooted in the African-American musical tradition. And so what one so appreciates about Quasthoff as a recital singer also becomes a golden rule for everything else. How the bass-baritone lives up to his claim of really touching people with his voice is made clear by the enthusiastic audience reactions and the praises of the press. He is joined by three excellent jazz musicians: Dieter Ilg is characterised by his electrifying vitality, intelligent curiosity, technical brilliance and total devotion to the moment. Wolfgang Haffner is Germany’s best-known drummer – with an unparalleled career that extends far beyond jazz. Simon Oslender is the youngest member of the band – once entering the scene as a »prodigy on the Hammond organ«, the now 24-year-old is considered one of the »rising stars« of the German music scene on piano, organ and keyboards.
