Mozart: Requiem
Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir / Risto Joost
Performers
- Conductor
- Soprano
- Mezzo-soprano
- Tenor
- Bass-Baritone
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Gulbenkian Choir
Coro Gulbenkian was founded in 1964 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a full symphonic body of around 100 singers. The choir joins the Orquestra Gulbenkian and other orchestras to perform Classical, Romantic and Contemporary choral-symphonic repertoire, but can also perform a cappella. It has performed – and often premiered – many 20th century works by Portuguese and international composers.
Coro Gulbenkian has been invited to collaborate with major international orchestras, under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, John Nelson, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frans Brüggen, Franz Welser-Möst, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, René Jacobs and Leonard Slatkin, among others.
Besides its regular season of concerts in Lisbon and frequent national tours, Coro Gulbenkian has repeatedly toured Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
Coro Gulbenkian has recorded extensively for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Cascavelle, Musifrance, as well as FNAC-Music, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Early-Renaissance polyphony to Xenakis. Several of these albums received international awards.
Michel Corboz was the Principal Conductor between 1969 and 2019. Jorge Matta and Inês Tavares Lopes are currently the Associate and Assistant conductors, respectively.
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Risto Joost
Conductor
The young Estonian conductor Risto Joost excels by his specialized versatility and has gained widespread recognition for his work both in the opera pit and on concert stage. The trained singer and Conductor in Residence of the Estonian National Opera has already held major artistic positions, such as Chief Conductor of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir from 2015 to 2019. He succeeded at important competitions and conducted some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras. Since 2020/21 Risto Joost is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Theatre Vanemuine Tartu.
Risto Joost is in demand as a guest conductor with orchestras such as Helsinki Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Opera Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta,Trondheim Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Dortmund Philharmonic, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir, Prague Radio Symphony, Janacek Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro la Fenice, Latvian National Symphony, Liepaja Symphony, Estonian National Symphony among others.
In addition he collaborated with the RIAS Kammerchor, SWR Vokalensemble, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Swedish Radio Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir to name a few.
At the Estonian National Opera Risto Joost has led more than 20 premieres. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to the most challenging works of contemporary composers. At the Birgitta Festival Tallinn he led La Bohème in 2018.
Forthcoming highlights are his debuts with Bavarian State Opera Orchestra Munich, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Kristiansand Symphony (Don Giovanni) and engagements to Slovenian Philharmonic & Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir, WKO Heilbronn, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Liepaja Symphony, Janacek Philharmonic etc.
At Theatre Vanemuine he conducts the premiere of Tonis Kaumann: The Mall as well as revivals of Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, Madame Butterfly, Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix among others.
Risto Joost’s discography includes three albums by Tõnu Korvits: You are Light and Morning (Sei la luce e il mattino) with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Hymns to the Nordic Lights with Estonian National Symphony as well as Moorland Elegies (all Ondine).
Furthermore it contains works by Haydn with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Peeter Vähi with Latvian National Symphony, Arvo Pärt with Netherlands Chamber Orchestra & Netherlands Chamber Choir.
For his artistic activities in Estonia and abroad, Risto Joost received the music award of the Cultural Foundation in Estonia in 2016 and was awarded the Young Cultural Figure Award of the Estonian Republic in 2011. He was Prizewinner of the Malko Conducting Competition 2015 and Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2012.
Risto Joost has studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and received further training at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2008, Risto Joost graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with a Masters Degree, majoring in orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula.
He founded the chamber choir Voces Musicales/Voces Tallinn in Estonia in 1999 and has been Artistic Director of the Birgitta Festival Tallinn in 2017 and 2018.
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Ilse Eerens
Soprano
Praised for her luminous voice, musical sensitivity and versatility, Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens enjoys an international opera and concert career in repertoire that spans from Bach to works of the 21st century.
Highlights of the season 2024-25 include her debut at New National Theater Tokyo in the title role and world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s new opera Natasha. In concert she will perform Brahms Requiem with the Gulbenkian Orchestra under the baton of Peter Dijkstra, La Vierge in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bucher with hr-Sinfonieorchester and Alain Altinoglu in Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie de Paris, Wiener Musikverein and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Mahler’s Symphony no 8 at La Monnaie, Bach’s Matthäuspassion with Phion and Residentie Orkest, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Liza Lim’s Fatimah/Jubilation of Flowers with Basel Sinfonietta
Recent seasons saw engagements at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Salzburger Festspiele, Theater an der Wien, Opera de Lyon, Opera de Lille, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Bregenzer Festspiele in roles such as Pamina and 1.Dame/Die Zauberflöte, Mélisande/Pelléas et Mélisande, title-roles in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen and Hosokawa’s Matsukaze, Tschang-haitang in Zemlinsky’s Der Kreidekreis, Marianne in HK Gruber’s Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald, La Vierge in Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher, Susanna/Le nozze di Figaro, Despina/Cosi fan tutte and Héro in Berlioz’ Béatrice et Benedict.
Next to these appearances Ilse Eerens is a regular guest at La Monnaie in Brussels in roles such as Pamina, Sophie/Der Rosenkavalier, La Vierge, Celia/Lucio Silla, Oscar/Un ballo in maschera, Jemmy in a concert version of Guillaume Tell (also at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam), Noémie in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Antigone in Enescu’s Oedipe and Amanda in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, a part she has also performed at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and at the Adelaide Music Festival in Australia.
Equally sought-after in concert, her repertoire includes the major works from Baroque and Classique up to Music of the 21st century - from Bach’s Oratories to the Requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Fauré and Dvorak, Masses and Oratories by Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert up to contemporary music like Hans Abrahamsen’s Let Me Tell You and the world premiere of Hosokawa’s Nach dem Sturm with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. At the Salzburger Festspiele and the Wiener Konzerthaus she performed Gottfried von Einem’s Der Prozess with the Radiosinfonieorchester Wien. Ms Eerens has worked with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, Hartmut Haenchen, Lorenzo Viotti, Kazushi Ono, HK Gruber, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, Peter Dijkstra, Richard Egarr, Laurence Equilbey, Jean-Christoph Spinosi, Michael Schønwandt, Mark Wigglesworth, Jaap van Zweden, Antonello Manacorda and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and ensembles like Orchestre National de Radio France, Orquesta y Coro Nacional d’España, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, MDR Sinfonieorchester, City of Birmingham Symphony, Rotterdam and Brussels Philharmonic, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Capella Mediterranea, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Beethovenorchester Bonn, Choeur Accentus and NDR Vokalensemble, just to name a few.
Available on CD and DVD are Haydn’s Jahreszeiten with Concerto Köln and Marcus Creed (Carus), Nach dem Sturm with the Orquesta Sinfonia de Euskadi under Jun Maerkl, Dvořák’s Requiem and Stabat Mater (Record of the Month/Gramophone Magazine) and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, Bach’s Osteroratorium with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Frans Brüggen, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aaron (EuroArts) and songs by Antonio Salieri (SWR/Hänssler Classic).
Awards include the Arleen Auger prize in the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, where she was the only the finalist who excelled in all the three categories of Opera, Oratorio and Lieder, and the 3rd prize at the ARD Musikwettbewerb 2006.
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Marianne Beate Kielland
Mezzo-Soprano
Marianne Beate Kielland is established as one of the foremost singers of Europe and is the only Norwegian singer to have received a US Grammy nomination in the category «Best Vocal Classical Album». The versatile mezzo-soprano started her international career as an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Hannover, and since then she has been working frequently with leading orchestras and ensembles and enjoying a vast concert repertoire spanning from early 17th century works through to Classical, Romantic and the contemporary eras.
She has appeared with major orchestras and ensembles including Wiener Symphoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Dutch Radio Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th century, Iceland Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Royal Flemish Orchestra, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, Europa Galante, Les Talens Lyriques, RIAS Kammerchor, Anima Eterna, Le Concert des Nations, Collegium Vocale Gent and Bach Collegium Japan; and has worked with such distinguished conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Leonardo Alarcon, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Thomas Dausgaard, Fabio Luisi, Michel Corboz, Juanjo Mena, John Fiore, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, René Jacobs, Andrew Manze, Marc Minkowski, Vasily Petrenko, Daniel Reuss, André de Ridder, Helmut Rilling, Christophe Rousset, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Thomas Søndergård and Robin Ticciati.
Kielland is also in great demand for Baroque operatic roles including Dido in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Merope in Vivaldi's Oracolo in Messenia (an extensive tour with Europa Galante), Messaggiera and Proserpina in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Fernando in Attilio Ariosti’s La Fede nei tradimenti, Apollo in Handel's Terpsichore, Ercole in Caldara’s Il piu bel nome, Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Aronne in Francesco Nicolò Fago’s Il Faraone Sommerso. She has also appeared as Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
Kielland has made more than 50 CD recordings of oratorios, operas, cantatas and songs by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Caldara, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann, Mahler, Mussorgsky, Martin, Chausson, Korngold, von Suppé, Schönberg, Webern, Berg and Sigurd Islandsmoen. In 2012 she was nominated to a GRAMMY Award in the category Best Classical Vocal Solo for the album Veslemøy Synsk, which features works by composers Edvard Grieg and Olav Anton Thommesen. She performs regularly with pianist Nils Anders Mortensen and the duo has appeared in Norway, Germany Estonia, Russia and Finland. She has also appeared with pianists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Pascal Roge, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Lise de la Salle and Jos van Immerseel.
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Thomas Erlank
Tenor
South African tenor Thomas Erlank has been a member of the ensemble of the Opernhaus Zürich since 2020 after completing two years as a member of the International Opera studio. He has already appeared in numerous productions by Andreas Homoki, Tatjana Gürbaca, Jetske Mijnsen among others.
During the 2018/2019 season, Thomas made his Opernhaus Zürich debut with the premiere of Christian Spuck`s ballet production of Hans Zender`s composed interpretation of Winterreise with huge success. Recent roles include le Chevalier de la force in Poulenc`s Dialogues des Carmélites, Lucano in Monteverdi`s L`íncoronazione di Poppea, and Grimoaldo in Handel`s Rodelinda. On the concert stage Thomas has performed works by JS Bach, GF Händel, J Haydn, Saint-Saens, WA Mozart, FP Schubert, and S.vd Merwe.
After some years of studying at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Thomas moved to London where he completed a post-graduate diploma in vocal performance, a master degree, and a post masters diploma in opera performance at the Royal College of Music.
Thomas remains a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich where this season sees him perform Gastone in Verdi’s La Traviata and Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. He also sings in Christian Spuck’s ballet Monteverdi with Ballet Zürich, and on the concert platform he performs Mozart’s Requiem in Lisbon with the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Risto Joost.
Future plans include the title role in Monteverdi`s L'Orfeo.
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Marcos Fink
Bass-Baritone
The bass-baritone Marcos Fink was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina into a Slovenian family. He received his vocal instruction from Ivan Ivanov and Victor Srugo, and participated in repertoire master courses given by Phillipe Huttenlocker, Wolfgang Schöne, Erik Werba, Aldo Baldin. In 1988 he obtained a scholarship and furthered his instruction with Lady Heather Harper and Robert Sutherland in London. He made his opera debut at the Grossesfestspielhaus in Salzburg in 1990.
He has performed in major opera and concert houses around the world (Paris, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona, Madrid, Geneva, Tokyo, Osaka, Ljubljana, Milano, Rome, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Calgary, Berlin, Sao Paolo, Houston, …) under the direction of renowned conductors (Michel Corboz, Hans Graf, Leopold Hager, Alain Lombard, Semyon Bychkow, Uwe Mund, Milan Horvat, Pinchas Steinberg, Anton Nanut, Lior Shambadal, René Jacobs, …) and orchestras (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonic de Strasbourg, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Slovenian Philharmonic orchestra, Concerto Köln, Wiener Symphoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Freiburger Barockorchester, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, ….)
His CD recordings include Haendel-Mozart Messiah; Puccini Messa di Gloria; J. Haydn Caecilian Messe; Fauré Requiem, Bach Mass in B minor and Schemellis-Lieder, Mozart Requiem, Krönungsmesse, Don Giovanni (Leporello) (prize Orphée d’Or 2000, for best recording – Académie du Disque Lyrique), Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso); Frank Martin Golgotha (Christ), Rossini Petite messe solennelle, Leopold I Sacred works (Musica imperialis), in Musica sacra slovenica collection. For the CD production of Radio Slovenia, he has recorded three Schubert’s cycles: Die Schöne Müllerin, Die Winterreise (prize Orphée d’Or 1998 for best interpreter – Academie du Disque Lyrique) and Schwanengesang; Schumann Dichterliebe and Liederkreis op.39, Slovenian songs (46 songs from 17 Slovenian composers), Premrl Christmas mysteries, all these recordings accompanied by the pianist Nataša Valant.
He has also recorded Carlos Guastavino’s songs Flores Argentinas and Eduard Marxsen Lieder. Marcos Fink have been awarded the Slovenian prize for culture “Prešernov sklad 1999”, for his Schubert recording and in 2013 for the CD with Slovenian songs and duets “Slovenija!” (Harmonia mundi) with his sister Bernarda Fink and the pianist Anthony Spiri. The CD “Canciones argentinas” (HM) also with Bernarda Fink and the pianist Carmen Piazzini was nominated for the GRAMMY awards 2006 in the category of “best classical vocal performance” and for the BBC Music awards 2007. As Leporello he participates in the release of a DVD (HM) with Mozart’s Don Giovanni conducted by René Jacobs. He has lately performed the roles of Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic flute in Aix-en-Provence (recorded for HM), the Viceroy in Offenbach’s La Perichole in Bordeaux, Socrates in Telemann’s The patient Socrates, Claudio in Haendel’s Agrippina (recorded for HM – GRAMMY nomination), Polifemo in Acis and Galatea and Mondo in Cavalieri’s Rappresentazione d’anima e di corpo in the Staatsoper Berlin, Sancio Pansa in Conti’s Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena and Jupiter in Rameau’s Platée in the Amsterdam opera house.
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem, K. 626