Charles Spencer (born 1955) is an English classical pianist and music educator.
Born in Thorne, South Yorkshire, Spencer studied with Max Pirani at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He was awarded the Promotion Prize for Artistic Achievements of the Austrian Federal Government. He is mainly known as Lied accompanist. He was the permanent pianist of Christa Ludwig, Bernarda Fink, Gundula Janowitz, Vesselina Kasarova, Marjana Lipovšek, Jessye Norman, Deborah Polaski, Thomas Quasthoff, Ildikó Raimondi, Peter Schreier, John Shirley-Quirk and Deon van der Walt. He also accompanied Cheryl Studer, Elīna Garanča, Petra Lang, Andreas Schmidt, Peter Seiffert, Petra-Maria Schnitzer, Janina Baechle and Iris Vermillion. [1] He has recorded numerous disks - including Schubert Lieder with Gundula Janowitz and Thomas Quasthoff, Brahms-Lieder with Marjana Lipovšek, Deborah Polaski, Deon van der Walt, Doris Soffel and Michael Volle as well as recitals with Maria Venuti and Deon van der Walt. Supported by the Landesregierung von Schleswig-Holstein , he founded a song festival with the singer Ulf Bästlein in Husum. His Rossini-CD with Cecilia Bartoli and his accompaniment to Christa Ludwig's "Farewell to Salzburg" received international recognition. Since 1999, Spencer has also been working as a professor for Lied interpretation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. [2]
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek βαρύτονος (barýtonos), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone.
Christa Ludwig was a German mezzo-soprano and occasional dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos in symphonic literature. Her performing career spanned almost half a century, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and referred to as the Oscars for classical music. They are widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious classical music awards in the world. According to Matthew Owen, national sales manager for Harmonia Mundi USA, "ultimately it is the classical award, especially worldwide."
Anne Sofie von Otter is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs.
Gundula Janowitz is an Austrian lyric soprano singer of operas, oratorios, lieder, and concerts. She is one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century and was pre-eminent in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lucia Popp was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Strauss and Wagner operas. Her career included performances at Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala. Popp was also a highly regarded recitalist and lieder singer.
The Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.
Gurre-Lieder are a tripartite oratorio followed by a melodramatic epilogue for five vocal soloists, narrator, three choruses and grand orchestra. The work, which is based on an early song cycle for soprano, tenor and piano, was composed by the then-Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg from 1900 to 1903. Following a break he resumed orchestration in 1910 and completed it in November of 1911. It sets to music the poem cycle Gurresange by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen.
Carmina Burana is a cantata composed in 1935 and 1936 by Carl Orff, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis. It was first performed by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937. It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last sections of the piece are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" and start with "O Fortuna".
This is the discography of Simon Rattle and other produced works by the English conductor.
"Prometheus", D. 674, is an intensely dramatic art song composed by Franz Schubert in October 1819 to a poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
This is a complete list of recordings by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, shown alphabetically by conductor, and then by recording label.
The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine.
Alexander Mullenbach is a Luxembourg pianist, composer and conductor. Since 2002, he has been director of the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Charles Clement Fussell is an American composer and conductor of contemporary classical music. He has composed six symphonies and three operas. His symphony Wilde for solo baritone and orchestra, based on the life of Oscar Wilde and premiered by the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Sanford Sylvan in 1990, was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1992.
Stéphane Degout is a contemporary French baritone. He grew up in Saint-Jean-de-Niost (Ain) and has been living in Lyon since 1995.
Janina Baechle is a German operatic mezzo-soprano. She was a member of the Vienna State Opera from 2004 to 2011, and has appeared internationally.
Klemens Sander is an Austrian baritone.