Author Archives: daria

Gala concert for the 100th birthday of Victoria de los Ángeles

Barcelona-born soprano Victoria de los Ángeles would have been 100 years old in 2023. The Gran Teatre del Liceu is honoring the outstanding artist with a gala concert and reviving the repertoire of this legendary singer. Guests include Anne Schwanewilms, Joyce di Donato, Sarah Connolly, Louise Alder and Fatima Said. The stage design is by Vincent Huguet, who will present Victoria’s original costumes on stage.

7 November 2023, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

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Masterclass in Hamburg

In October 2023, Anne Schwanewilms returns to Hamburg for a master class on invitation of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. For four days, she will work with the students of the master’s program on the topic of vocal technique and performance. The students of the opera class will present the results at a closing concert on Friday, 20 October 2023 at the HfMT Campus in Barmbek. Admission is free, registration is required.

Closing concert master class
Friday, Oct. 20 2023, 7 p.m.
HfMT Campus Barmbek
Admission is free, registration is required at: https://www.hfmt-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen

Concert: Schönberg’s „Erwartung“ with the Symphony Orchestra Hamburg

„With the soprano Anne Schwanewilms, a vocally clever leading performer had been chosen; this Schönberg cannot use a diva, but only a fearless character singer who can nevertheless give support and form to the erratically fluttering text of the plot – woman wandering through the night, searching for her lover and ultimately finding his corpse – and the delicate challenges of this role. She succeeded impressively, also because Cambreling’s penchant for difficult modern classics was transferred to the shaping of the orchestra.“

Hamburger Abendblatt, Joachim Mischke, 20 June 2023

Review CD “Dennoch”

“The “Sieben frühe Lieder” by Alban Berg receive attention mainly in their orchestral version made by Berg himself, while their original version as a piano song cycle is neglected. Yet this piano version – and this is vividly demonstrated by the present recording – is the melodically more insistent, more differentiated and also more appropriate. And it certainly has a more intimate and atmospheric effect when it is interpreted just as simply but not reservedly, just as sensitively but not over-explicitly, as Anne Schwanewilms and Manuel Lange are able to do.

In the same way, they take on the piano song cycle “Dennoch” (Nevertheless), based on seven rhymeless poems by Hilde Domin, composed by Stefan Heucke for Anne Schwanewilms in 2018. (…) Schwanewilms’ bright, evenly timbrated soprano merges, as it were, with the gesture of Heucke’s melodicism, which can emerge all the more forcefully because Manuel Lange gives the piano part harmonically complementary contours. (…) The four Domin poems recited by Wolf-Dieter Rammler very sensibly complement the coherent program and refresh the attention.«

FONO FORUM, Giselher Schubert, May 2023

World premiere recording: CD “Dennoch”.

A live recording of a concert in Leipzig with Anne Schwanewilms, pianist Manuel Lange and actor Wolf-Dietrich Rammler will be released on CD by GENUIN on 5 January 2023. The program of the recital included the “Sieben frühe Lieder” by Alban Berg, recitations of texts by Hilde Domin and the song cycle “Dennoch” by composer Stefan Heucke. “Dennoch” is based on poems by Hilde Domin, the song cycle is now being released as a world premiere recording. A humanitarian appeal from great poetry and moving music!

CD “Dennoch”, to be released on 5 January 2023 by GENUIN

Recital »Dennoch” at the Lied-Festival Ruhr

At the Lied-Festival Ruhr, Anne Schwanewilms will present Stefan Heucke’s Lied cycle “Denoch” together with pianist Manuel Lange and actor Wolf-Dietrich Rammler. The concert takes place on 13 October 12022 at Schloss Borbeck. The seven Lieder based on poems by Heidelberg poet Hilde Domin were premiered by Anne Schwanewilms at the “Heidelberger Frühling” festival in 2021. A recording will soon be released on CD.

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Concert with the National Theater Orchestra Mannheim conducted by Alexander Soddy, 2nd Symphony by Gustav Mahler, 13 June 2022.

“Luminously, the nobly timbrated soprano of Anne Schwanewilms rises from the sound layers…”

IOCO Culture Magazine, Uschi Reifenberg, 20 June 2022

“In addition, the soprano Anne Schwanewilms contributed the ideal brilliant angelic sound.”

Onlinemerker, Dirk Schauß, 15 June 2022

‚“(…) belongs just as much to the further highlights of this evening as the pure and at times almost vibrato-free soprano of Anne Schwanewilms in the final movement (…)”.

Mannheimer Morgen, Stefan M. Dettlinger, 15 June 2022

“The hope of not having lived in vain is given quivering certainty by Anne Schwanewilms in her soprano solo”

Die Rheinpfalz, Uwe Rauschelbach, 15 June 2022

“This transcendence was built on more and more in the final movement by the opera choir (rehearsed by Dani Juris) and soprano Anne Schwanewilms: with cultivated vocalization that let humility and reverence speak from the verses to the “Resurrection.””

Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Simon Scherer, 14 June 2022

“Like a ray of light full of promise, Anne Schwanewilms’ wonderfully timbrated soprano voice, sure of the high notes, rose in the mighty chorale of the excellently formed NTM Choir-Extrachor (Dani Juris) additionally assisted by members of div. choirs in Mannheim. In splendid harmony, the two beautiful voices merged in the scherzo.”

Online Merker, Gerhard Hoffmann, 13 June 2022

Concerts in Hamburg in 2023

Anne Schwanewilms returns to the Elbphilharmonie in the 2022/2023 concert season. “Fantastic Expectation” is the title of the concert by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, which will be performed under the direction of Sylvain Cambrelingonce in the Laeiszhalle and once in Elbphilharmonie . The program features Arnold Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” and Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”

Dates: 18 June 2023, 7 p.m. 20 June 2023, 8 p.m.

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Konzert mit der Neuen Philharmonie Westfalen und Rasmus Baumann, Gelsenkirchen, 21 March 2022

„Anne Schwanewilms proved herself to be a first-class soprano, combining impressive technical expertise with the talent to breathe life into the sentiments of the poem texts wrapped in words – playfully in the ‚Villanelle‘, with the necessary gravity in the lament ‚Sur les lagunes‘, then again equally tender, powerful and full of longing in ‚Au cimetière (Claire de lune)‘. As one of the most renowned artists for Lied programs, she was able to tell stories with her voice like hardly any other, with her almost unbelievable vocal control, and once again lived up to her reputation as a ‚sound paintress‘”.

Rheinische Post, Katrin Schelter, 22 March 2022

Concert with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen »Lyrik«, Berlioz and Dukas, 16 March 2022

“Highly concentrated, unbelievably flexible in the change of mood, the orchestra accompanies Anne Schwanewilms’ luminous, in the lyrical part amazingly voluminous splendid soprano in Hector Berlioz’ early “Nuits d’été”. (…) Praised as a leading Strauss interpreter, the native of Gelsenkirchen hits the plainly folksong-like at the beginning. With ravishing shades, she masters the legato of great lines with a perfect swinging change of register in the death dream of the “Spectre de la rose” as well as the pausing, the renouncing longing with a slightly excited vibrato or the inspiring barcarole magic in the last of these first orchestral songs in music history. Admirable how she meets the enormous demand of differentiated shaping of the much too seldom performed work.«

Recklinghäuser Zeitung, Bernd Aulich, 19 March 2022