Philipp Mathmann’s singular voice captivates with its effortless, floating heights, its wonderful clarity and tonal intensity. The young German singer has thus become one of the most sought-after countertenors or sopranists of his generation on the international stage.
Raised in Lippstadt, Philipp began vocal training as a teenager, which he — later a national prizewinner in the Jugend musiziert competition — pursued after completing school mainly with Renate Faltin at the Hans-Eissler Musikhochschule Berlin, and furthermore in masterclasses and private lessons with renowned performers such as Ingeborg Danz, Kai Wessel, Barbara Schlick, and Emma Kirkby.
A full-time occupation in itself, one might think — nonetheless, alongside his vocal studies, he also trained in medicine and today works, in addition to his singing career, as a senior physician at the University Clinic for Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology in Münster.
Since his opera debut in 2011 at the theatre of Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, he has been a regular guest at international music festivals such as Musikfest Bremen, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, MAfestival in Bruges, Styriarte in Graz, Festival della Valle d’Itria in Italy, Tage Alter Musik Herne, International Handel Festival in Göttingen, the Ludwigsburg Palace Festival, and the Handel Festival in Halle.
He has a special affinity for baroque repertoire and historically informed performance practice, and over the course of his career has taken on numerous roles in operas by composers such as Händel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, and many others. He has sung the most demanding soprano and countertenor parts in opera houses around the world, from the Semperoper Dresden to the Teatro Real in Madrid, Bayreuth, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Opéra de Versailles, the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin, and the Vienna State Opera.
Equally appealing to Philipp is the concert repertoire. He regularly performs with various historically informed ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Orkiestra Historyczna („OH!“), Armonia Atenea, I Barocchisti, Ensemble 1700, and Concerto Köln, under conductors including George Petrou, Christophe Rousset, Gianluca Capuano, Dorothee Oberlinger, Rubén Dubrovsky, and Diego Fasolis. In the 2023/24 season, Mathmann also toured with the opera pasticcio „Their Master’s Voice“ with Cecilia Bartoli and John Malkovich.
He can, of course, be heard on numerous CDs, including two solo albums, as well as in television and radio productions from various countries, performing both well-known and rediscovered works; he has also recorded several world premiere performances.
SONUS on Philipp Mathmann
Many (in fact, most) of the countertenors and male sopranos who frequently perform opera seem, to my ears, no longer suited for concertante, particularly sacred (early) music: too much vibrato, volume, and resulting sharpness; too little rhetoric, phrasing, shaping of melodic lines; too little dynamic nuance that meaningfully supports the text; diffuse articulation and indistinct vowels; effect instead of affect.
This can, of course, be explained by the demands of performing with large orchestras in grand opera houses and halls, but in my view it disqualifies a singer from a good portion of the concert repertoire (at least, I no longer enjoy listening to it...).
Philipp does not have this problem. Perhaps it is due to his professional background as a physician and phoniatrist that he manages to maintain perfect vocal control and precise articulation despite his many appearances in opera houses and large venues. And it is certainly a result of his musical intelligence that in shaping his vocal lines he never loses connection to the text, phrases excellently, shapes dynamically with fine nuance, and creates expressiveness through color and by playing with dynamic and agogic tension rather than mere loudness.
```
Audio samples:
Johann Sebastian Bach: Tief gebückt und voller Reue
Please also visit Philipp Mathmann on our YouTube channel!
