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Wolf Goethe Songs at Carnegie/Weill Recital Hall:
“Mr. Holzmair strolled confidently onstage, beaming at the audience with easygoing friendliness. But
he sang with the soul of a tortured poet, often gesturing with his hands and addressing the audience with the intensity of
a storyteller transfixed by his own tales. Mr. Holzmair's rich, sensitive and charismatic voice seems ideal for
this repertory. He sings from the heart, with nuanced phrasing that dramatically illuminates the text... “
The New York Times, March 29, 2007 |
“Holzmair is a lyric baritone, yet he sounds ever more resonant
in his lowest range than I have heard previously. And he has a genius for connecting with his audience. His ravishing
journey through these lieder was a creative act in itself, for his voice gradually gained emotional momentum as the
desolate irony of songs to texts by Heinrich Heine followed settings of poems by the lesser-known Johann Gabriel Seidl and
Ludwig Rellstab...Holzmair's success in conveying the depth of all the songs emanates from his combination of intimate
shadings of chamber-song style and operatic sensibility. He attended to every poetic detail.” The Washington Post, April 8, 2008 |
“The best singing of the evening came from Wolfgang Holzmair
(Papageno)...Holzmair's voice was strong and sweet througout its range and expressed the suppleness, yearning and genuine
bonhomie of the birdcatcher's human good nature. He sang both "Der Vogelfaenger bin ich, ja" and "Ein
Maedchen oder Weibchen" with a rich, earthly, manly tone."
Opera News, May 2006 |
Wolfgang Holzmair was born in Vöcklabruck, Austria,
and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art with Hilde Rössel-Majdan (voice) and Erik Werba (lied).
He performs in recital throughout the world, including London, Lisbon, New York, Washington, at the Risör Festival (Norway),
Bath Festival (UK), Menuhin Festival (Switzerland), Bregenz Festival and Carinthian Summer Festival (Austria), and in 2008
and 2009 returns to London, New York and Washington, Southampton, The Hague, Salzburg, Graz and Linz, among other cities.
Alongside his outstanding artistic relationship with the British pianist Imogen Cooper and his collaboration with a number
of well-versed accompanists (Till Fellner, Andreas Haefliger, Russell Ryan and Lars Vogt), Mr. Holzmair is also active in
the opera world. He recently appeared as Papageno (Magic Flute) in Dallas under Graeme Jenkins, Faninal in Der
Rosenkavalier in Seattle under Asher Fisch and in Hong Kong under Edo deWaart, Don Alfonso (Cosi fan tutte)
in Lyon under William Christie and in Toronto under Richard Bradshaw, the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos in
Madrid under Jesús López-Cobos, Wolfram (Tannhäuser) in Erfurt under Gugerbauer, and Eduard (Neues
vom Tage by Hindemith) in Ancona. Future plans include Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) in Dallas, Demetrius
(Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten) in Toronto and the Father (Hansel and Gretel) on
a Japanese tour under Ozawa. Equally in demand on the concert platform, he has sung with leading European and American orchestras,
such as the Israel and Berlin Philharmonics, Vienna, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Dallas and Indianapolis Symphonies, Leipzig
Gewandhaus, Cleveland, Minnesota and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment,
under eminent conductors including Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, von Dohnanyi, Frühbeck de Burgos, Haitink, Harnoncourt,
Kreizberg, Norrington, Ozawa. Upcoming engagements include Britten’s War Requiem with the Dresden Philharmonic
under Hickox and 3rd Symphony by Carl Nielsen with the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie. Wolfgang Holzmair has an extensive
discography, and his recordings have met with critical acclaim. These include lieder by Clara and Robert Schumann
and Eichendorff songs by various composers, all with Imogen Cooper (Philips), various Schubert recordings with Gérard
Wyss (Tudor), Pelléas et Mélisande with Haitink and the Orchestre National de France (Naive), and Brahms’
Ein deutsches Requiem with Herbert Blomstedt, which won a Grammy. For years he has also been a committed advocate
of works, especially lieder, by persecuted composers as is evidenced by his Krenek, Mittler and Zeisl CDs (ORF,
cpo). A Terezin recording is currently in preparation (Bridge Records). Since 1998 he has taught lied and oratorio
at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and given master classes in Europe and North America.
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