Holger Falk

Holger Falk: CD release Louis Durey Mélodies

In June, the latest and final recording Louis Durey Mélodies has been released at the DG label. This release marks the final of the 10-part CD-series focusing on the Lied oeuvre of the Groupe des six composers. Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher present a wide selection of songs by the French composer Louis Durey on this CD. Despite an extensive body of work and important advocates, Louis Durey is only known to insiders today. Durey was also an avowed communist and revolutionary who was involved in the Resistance and wanted to write music for the common people. Did he achieve this with his extremely artistic songs? His "Vergers" on original texts by Rilke reveal an expressive harmonic richness that comes close to Schoenberg and Messiaen - far removed from Cocteau's ideal of a simple tonal language. Here it is, the long overdue rehabilitation of an unjustly forgotten artist.

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Holger Falk: Venice-Canzoni in Brühl

On the weekend of 14 and 15 June 2025, the baritone Holger Falk will sing the Lied-programme Il Gondoliere Veneziano in two concerts at the Brühler Schlosskonzerte at Castle Augustusburg. Only recently, the baritone and the ensemble nuovo aspetto thrilled the audience with these remarkable Venice songs in US-concerts in Florida, New York City and Connecticut. Holger Falk will make his debut at the Brühler Schlosskonzerte and its historic castle of UNESCO World Heritage.

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Holger Falk & Sarah Maria Sun: AMOPERA

On 11 May 2025 the soprano Sarah Maria Sun and the baritone Holger Falk will perform the concertante-performative meta-opera AMOPERA on the stage of the Wiener Konzerthaus. Following the successful tour of Hong Kong and South Korea in March, this outstanding production of Klangforum Wien and the Needcompany/Jan Lauwers will now also be presented in Vienna.

During thismusic-theatrical evening excerpts of works by Luciano Berio, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Zemlinsky, Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davis, Iannis Xenakis, Salvatore Sciarrino, Bernhard Lang, Beat Furrer, Rebecca Saunders, Michael Wertmüller and Sara Glojnarić will be intertwined.

Opera / Music theatre:

Alban Berg Wozzeck (Wozzeck)
Benjamin Britten Billy Budd (Billy Budd)
Peter Maxwell Davies Eight songs for a mad king (King Georg)
Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas)
Gaetano Donizetti Il campanello di notte (Enrico)
Peter Eötvös Der Goldene Drache (Man, Asian, WP), Paradise Reloaded – Lillith (Lucifer)
Hans Gefors Skuggspel (scholar)
Detlev Glanert The Three Riddles (King Zephalus, fly)
Heiner Goebbels Landscape with distant relatives (baritone)
Christoph Graupner Dido (Juba)
Georg Friedrich Haas Morgen und Abend (Johannes), Thomas (Thomas)
Johann Adolf Hasse Leucippo (Nunte)
Hans Werner Henze Boulevard Solitude (Lescaut), El Cimarrón (Cimarrón), Der Prinz von Homburg (Prince), Das Floß der Medusa (Jean-Charles)
Emmerich Kálmán Die Csárdásfürstin (Edwin)
Franz Lehár Die Lustige Witwe (Danilo)
Benoît Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (Moritz Stiefel, WP)
Claudio Monteverdi Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Testo), L’Orfeo (Orfeo), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottone), Il Ritorno d´Ulisse in patria (Ulisse)
W. A. Mozart The Magic Flute (Papageno)
Jan Müller-Wieland Die Irre oder nächtlicher Fischfang (Der Mann, WP)
Fabián Panisello L’officina della resurrezione (baritone)
Giacomo Puccini Madama Butterfly (Sharpless)
Francis Poulenc Les mamelles de Tirésias (Le Mari)
Wolfgang Rihm Die Eroberung von Mexico (Cortéz), Dionysos (N./Nietzsche/Dionysos), Jakob Lenz (Jakob Lenz)
Gioacchino Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro)
Kaja Saariaho L’amour de loin (Jaufré Rudel WP)
Steffen Schleiermacher Kokain (Tobias 2, WP)
Miroslav Srnka Make no Noise (Joseph, WP)
Johann Strauß Die Fledermaus (Gabriel von Eisenstein)
Vladimir Tarnopolski Beyond the Shadow (prisoner, WP)
Manfred Trojahn Enrico (Enrico), Ein Brief (Lord Chandos, WP), Septembersonate (Brydon, WP)
Viktor Ullmann The Emperor of Atlantis (Emperor)
Michael Wertmüller Weine nicht, singe! (Aki, WP), Diodati.Unendlich (Lord Byron, WP)
Iannis Xenakis Oresteia (Kassandra, Athena)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann Die Soldaten (Stolzius)

4 May 2025, 19:30, Music Academy "Louis Spohr", Liedfestival Kassel

Programme: Dreams, Nightmares, Night and Twilight, Horror Stories, Eerieness - Songs by Robert Schumann, Erich J. Wolff and Francis Poulenc

Cast: Holger Falk (baritone), Klaus Simon (piano)

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11 May 2025, 19:00, Wiener Konzerthaus, Großer Saal

Programme: Amopera - a dystopian ballad; a half concertant meta opera with works by Luciano Berio, Alban Berg, Harrison Birtwistle, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Beat Furrer, Sara Glojnarić, Bernhard Lang, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michael Wertmüller, Iannis Xenakis and Alexander Zemlinsky

Cast: Klangforum Wien, Tim Anderson (conductor), Needcompany, Jan Lauwers (stage director), Grace Ellen Barkey (performer), Paul Blackmann (performer), Holger Falk (baritone), Maarten Seghers (performer), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano)

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29 May 2025, 19:00, Liszt Academy, Grand Hall, Budapest

Programme: Paweł Łukaszewski De profundis, Nunc dimittis, Krzysztof Penderecki O gloriosa virginum, Johannes Brahms A German Requiem op. 46

Cast: MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Choir, Róbert Farkas (conductor), Holger Falk (baritone), Natália Tuznik (soprano)

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31 May 2025, 10:05, Live at RadioCafe Wien

Programme: Ö1 Klassik-Treffpunkt (radio show)

Cast: Helene Breisach (presenter), Holger Falk, Students from University of Music and Performing Arts Graz

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14 June 2025, 20:00, Brühler Schlosskonzerte, Schloss Augustusburg
15 June 2025, 19:30, Brühler Schlosskonzerte, Schloss Augustusburg

Programme: Il Gondoliere Veneziano

Cast: Ensemble nuovo aspetto, Holger Falk (baritone)

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17 September 2025, 20:00, Transart Festival, Ex-Masten, Bolzano

Programme: Amopera - a dystopian ballad, semi concertant meta opera

Cast: Klanforum Wien, Tim Anderson (conductor), Needcompany, Jan Lauwers (stage director), Paul Blackmann (performer), Holger Falk (baritone), Maarten Seghers (performer), Sarah Maria Sun (soprano), Grace Tiang (performer)

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2 October 2025, 20:30, Festspielhaus, Tiroler Festspiele Erl

Programme: Ausklang I

Cast: Musicbanda Franui, Holger Falk (baritone), Herbert Schuch (piano), Vivi Vassileva (percussion)

Il Gondoliere Veneziano – Gondolier songs from the 18th century in the Venetian soundscape 

In Il Gondoliere Veneziano, the music and soundscape of Venice come together in an extraordinary way. As in the past, everyday sounds inspire the songs of the gondolier for a new musical interpretation. At the same time, the soundscape is influenced by the music, with everyday sounds turning into musical sounds and tones in reference to the gondolier’s music in a kind of sound metamorphosis. The programme is based around the “Canzoni da Battello”, performed by baritone Holger Falk, together with the baroque ensemble “Nuovo Aspetto”, led by Michael Dücker. The Canzoni da Battello are interspersed by the contrasting electro-acoustic Venice pieces by the duo Merzouga, which use baroque fragments as motifs, transposing melodic elements into the contemporary sound language, while preserving the integrity of the baroque music. The combination of these two approaches creates a Venice soundtrack as an overall, through-composed work. Church bells, voices, the sound of Venetian squares, the acoustic intimacy of winding alleyways, water, waves and beating paddles surround the gondolier’s singing.

Cast:
Holger Falk (baritone)
soundscape – duo „Merzouga“: Janko Hanushevsky & Eva Pöpplein (soundscapes and live electronic)
Ensemble „Nuovo Aspetto“: Michael Dücker (lute), Johanna Seitz (harp), Elisabeth Seitz (salterio), Hartmut Becker (cello), Evgeny Sviridov (violine), Daniel Lanthier (oboe), Leonard Schelb, (baroque flute), Adrián van der Spoel (baroque guitar), Andreas Nowak (percussion)

Premiere:
17 April 2019, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Kleiner Saal – Opening of the Easter Festival

Equally popular as a singer of opera and Lieder, Holger Falk finds exactly the right tone for this music: with a light sound that unites simplicity and sweetness in his almost tenor-like timbre. (…) Holger Falk changes colour in harmony with the musical surroundings like a vocal chameleon.
Hamburger Abendblatt, Marcus Stäbler, 20th April 2019

Recording & broadcast of the programme by WDR (season 2018/19).

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Lieder by Hanns Eisler

In a four-part CD edition, Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher present the lied œuvre by Hanns Eisler. The CD Hanns Eisler Lieder Vol. 1 already received the German Record Critics’ Award 2017 and has been nominated for the Editor’s Choice Award of the Gramophone Magazine. The second CD of the series has been released in autumn 2017 to great acclaim. The repertoire can also be experienced on stage at a lieder recital.

The duo, which has been honoured with the ECHO-Klassik 2016 for its Erik Satie recording, shows a new perspective on Schoenberg’s pupil, who had long been reduced on his communistic work and pushed in a far left corner.

Both artists are convincing in their great diversity of expression, Falk’s precise understanding of lyric, and an impressive interpretation of the extremely versatile lieder by Eisler. The first CD presents lieder from a period between 1929 and 1937, which lyrics were mainly written by Bertolt Brecht and are first and foremost workers’ and battle songs. The following three recordings dedicate themselves to a particular period of time in Hanns Eisler’s creative work progress and range from workers and battle songs, chansons and art songs to 12-tone children’s songs.

Cast:
Holger Falk (baritone)
Steffen Schleiermacher (piano)

At the heart of this are soprano Sarah Maria Sun and baritone Holger Falk, who, throughout the evening, morph into a multitude of characters, personalities, and distorted characters - both physically and vocally. (...) 
Falk's impressive range - from a shrill, almost childlike falsetto to an alert and arresting baritone - is on full display in both songs from Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King. While it is certainly a team effort, the success of this production lies in how Sarah Maria Sun and Falk have enigmatically embraced the material. They are our conduit into this world, and it would be very easy to feel alienated if they didn't possess the stage presence to sell it.
Opera Now, Jonathan Whiting, 19 May 2025

Falk’s artistry centers on his ability to convey character and emotion through vocal color, whether singing or speaking, as well as by enunciation and facial expressions. In Cerruti’s barcarolle, he employed them to summon a couple chatting about love while gliding on a canal in sensuous, warm tones versus the braggadocio of a gondolier with a much more jaded view of romance. He would employ such rapid and effortless vocal slights of hand to great effect in every song. In “Dolce xe quel musetto,” Falk’s beautiful tone and sincerity painted the charms of the sweet Ninetta, further enhanced by subtle and delicate ornamentation in the reprise of the two verses. (...)
When Falk simply spoke, as he did to begin “Un anguileta fresca,” his voice conveyed an equal span of emotion. His voice dripped with innuendo as he told of a man who gave his love a fresh eel and told her to hold onto it for dear life, lest it escape. Singing full voice, Falk collapsed in spasms of delight to depict the man’s ecstasy in so tight an embrace. 
New York Classical Review, Rick Perdian, February 2025

Holger Falk beautifully accompanied by Steffen Schleiermacher on a slightly brittle sounding 1901 Steinway, guides us through these songs with flawless diction and flexible tone ranging from the confidential to the carefree, as in “Sur le Pavé de Paris” from 1952.
BBC Music Magazine, January 2025

The main achievement here is that more of Tailleferre’s work is being given an airing. Hats off to Falk and Schleiermacher (…) for making it happen. (…) 
Falk’s Eisler discs (…) are an absolute revelation, with an incredible immediacy, authority, verbal clarity and breadth of stylistic nuance (…)
theartsdesk.com, Sebastian Scotney, 23. December 2023

Holger Falk has a beautifully mellifluous baritone, and in the more lyrical numbers it is wonderfully easy to imagine him singing to you in his gondola on a warm Venetian night (and getting an extra tip for it of course, at the end of the evening). But the songs aren’t all simply seduction numbers, and they vary greatly in character with Falk showing himself equally adept at the tongue twisting and the highly characterful. It is this variety which makes the disc such a delight, the mixture of the hauntingly lyrical, the plangent, the lively characterful and the down-right toe-tapping.
Planet Hugill, Robert Hugill, 2 July 2020

This is both technically dazzling and musically involving: a collection of canzoni da battello (…) from 17th century Venice, wonderfully sung by baritone Holger Falk and deliciously accompanied by period instrument combo Nuovo Aspetto.
Falk is in gorgeous voice, singing with a relaxed informality that’s irresistible, and the production values serve him so well.
theartsdesk.com, Graham Rickson, 20 June 2020

Holger Falk’s high baritone and sensitive diction made each word of Hofmannstahl’s meditation clear and meaningful (…).
Opera Magazin, Agustín Blanco-Bazán, April 2020

Holger Falk shows the full range of colour in his voice as he interprets these songs, he has been impressive throughout the previous three discs, showing great subtlety as well as intensity in his reading and he is truly excellent here.
Music Web International, Stuart Sillitoe, January 2020

A first among equals and tour de force: Holger Falk as Lord Byron.
Die Zeit, Mirko Weber, 27 February 2019

Audio recordings:

Website:
Holger Falk Website

Schimmer PR:
Schimmer PR Website