Without any fanfare or festivities, modestly and almost anonymously, Christoph Pregardien - one of the greatest lyric tenors of our time - landed in Israel a few days ago. It is hard to imagine a more impressive career than his: The greatest conductors conduct him, and he is hosted by the top stages and festivals around the world, as well as orchestras and recording companies. The German tenor has already recorded over 120 discs, which have won innumerable prizes.
Pregardien's tremendous range begins with Monteverdi and Schutz at the dawn of Baroque, through Purcell, Bach and Handel, all the classical and romantic composers, up to Britten and contemporary German composers. He arrived in Israel to sing Schubert's "Winterreise" ("Winter Journey" ) cycle (at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center this past Saturday, and tonight at the Jerusalem YMCA, at 8:30 PM ), with which he continuously fills concert halls all over the world. Just last week he sang it in Germany and Belgium, and the upcoming months are already filled with performance dates too.
The sweeping success of the current interpretation of "Winter Journey" testifies to Pregardien's perceptiveness, as well as the sociological changes the traditional classical concert has undergone. Had he come here - or apparently to any concert hall the world over - with only a pianist to perform this exemplary work as it was originally written (for voice and piano ), it's not certain that hundreds would stream in to hear him. Despite his reputable name, it's hard to get people to leave the house for such a monastic recital - over an hour of music that demands a great deal of attentiveness and openness from its audience members.
Instead, the singer offers an alternative to the original: A colorful, contemporary version that makes things easier for listeners.
"I sang a few years ago in Montreal," says Pregardien. "A Canadian musician, the leader of the Pentaedre woodwind quintet, asked to meet with me. He showed me his arrangement of 'Winter Journey' and said that although he had already performed it with another singing group, he hoped that from then on I would be the singer with their ensemble for that piece."
Norman Forget, the Canadian musician in question who arranged the rendition, divided the role of the piano among a wide rage of instruments: oboes, clarinets, flutes, a French horn and a bassoon, and added something that made his adaptation even more unique - an accordion. The show's quick success all over the world attests to the sort of change audiences are seeking, innovation in the form of the classical concert.
"People who heard it told me that listeners need 10 to 15 minutes to become accustomed to this version," says Pregardien, "because something ... is missing. The piano is more abstract, and when you hear it together with the singer, each person imagines the colors differently in his mind. Here the instruments administer colorful sounds that may not suit everyone. On the other hand, the arrangement also reveals treasures that were hidden in the work, such as melodic lines or harmonies that are swallowed by the piano.
"It's hard to return to everyday life after singing 'Winter Journey,'" continues Pregardien. "It's always special, it deals with the great things in life - love and its loss, death, despair and fate. Every recital leaves its impression, but this one in particular."
A semester in law schoolPregardien was born in 1956 in Lemberg, Germany, and began his career as a choir boy in the church.
"There's a large cathedral in Lemberg, and the Bishop of Frankfurt established his residence there, that's why the city is so important in religious terms," he says. "My parents and sisters sang in the choir, so it was natural for me. In general, during my childhood, almost all 15,000 residents of the city sang in choirs. That's the tradition into which I was born, and it was inherently understood - just as it was understood that as a teenager one would stop singing and go on to study another profession.
"I didn't dream about becoming a professional singer, but one of the teachers in the choir heard me and noticed my unique voice, and took me to neighboring Frankfurt to his professor, who advised me to study music after my military service. My parents wanted me to study law and acquire a serious profession, but after one semester in law school I understood that my place was in singing."
Pregardien began studying at the Hochschule fur Musik in Frankfurt. "During my studies I sang all the arias from the Italian operas, like every operatic tenor," he says, "but I was drawn to Schubert and Bach, because there are such great treasures hidden in them. But I'm not only a singer of art songs and cantatas and Bach's passions, as many think - I also sing in operas by Rossini and Mozart, as well as Verdi and Haydn."
Although, as he says, he sings in operas, his world is far from that of the "Three Tenors."
"I didn't like what they did," Pregardien says, "when they filled stadiums claiming that they would bring people close to classical music and draw them to the opera house, when their primary objective was merely financial profit. Making money and a livelihood are legitimate aims, as long as you admit it and don't tell a different story."
But the difference between Pregardien's style and that of Italian opera (bel canto ) is more profound: His starting point is the text - the words and their pronunciation, and the expression of their precise meaning - while the starting point for singers of Italian opera is the lovely melody.
"Yes, I emerge from the text," Pregardien explains, "but the human voice is the only musical instrument capable of expressing words, songs and ideas. Besides, the composer also interprets a text. In the creative process, you first choose words and then compose music to them, and not vice versa. That is why I, as a singer, also interpret - both the composer and the poet - and like every performer, I add my own unique traits along the way."
Reaching people's heartsIn the "Winter Journey" concert given Saturday morning at the Opera House of the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Pregardien's unique traits really were revealed: delicacy, singing based on thought and intellect, a nice way of shaping the musical phrases, control of the fine points of the intensity of the sound, and emotional expression. His voice, he says, has not changed much over the years.
"Maybe it has become somewhat fuller and darker, and closer to baritone, but from the time I was 30, according to the recordings, I've noticed that my voice remains as it was," Pregardien says.
"What has changed in me is the expression: I'm more daring now. I allow myself to take risks and I'm not afraid of producing a sound that is not beautiful or precise. The claim that you must preserve your voice at any price, not exceed its limits so that it won't be damaged or broken, has turned out to be a cliche. So what if it breaks? A person is harmed often in his life and even breaks a hand or a foot and recovers. The same is true of the voice."
Pregardien is also in demand as a teacher. In the past he taught at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Zurich, with his busy schedule enabling him to get there twice a month at most.
"But it's impossible to build voices from the beginning like that, and I wanted to teach young people," he says.
"That's why I began teaching at the Hochschule in Cologne as a full-time professor - 18 hours a week, 32 weeks a year. In addition to singing, I found myself working around the clock and was forced to give up my hobbies. An occasional game of golf, meeting with friends - all of that was finished. And now I have a new family and two children, a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, and so I've cut my teaching job down to a part-time position."
Soon Pregardien will embark on a new career - conducting - which attests to the high status he has achieved in the music world. Without ever having conducted before, his proposal to conduct a show was received with great enthusiasm in agencies and among impresarios all over Europe, and attracted the best performers too.
"The concerts have already been set for March and April of next year," he says. "It will be Bach's St. John Passion with the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Lorraine Concert Orchestra."
"They simply grabbed us," he says of two of the soloists, soprano Ruth Ziesak and countertenor Andreas Scholl, both from Germany. "About 15 concerts have already been reserved: in Oslo, Vienna, Turin, Barcelona, Paris, Lucerne and more. I began taking conducting lessons with two teachers, a choir conductor and orchestra conductor Fabio Luisi," Pregardien says.
"Conducting is very similar to what I'm doing now, singing in a recital," he continues. "But unlike an opera or an oratorio, where there is a conductor and the singer is only one cog in the machine, as both conductor and performer I'm the one responsible, the leader. I have the freedom - to shape the phrases, to linger, to decide when to begin, and mainly to feel free to express emotion.
"After all," he continues, "music is first of all expression: It's not important if you make a mistake here and there, or sing too loud, or don't begin at the same time - what's important is to touch people, to reach their hearts."
