Philippe Herreweghe
Conductor Philippe Herreweghe pioneered the performance of Bach's choral music on period instruments and remains renowned in the field. He is the leader of several connected ensembles that perform music from the late Renaissance to the contemporary era.
Herreweghe was born in Ghent, Belgium, on May 2, 1947. He concurrently studied medicine and psychiatry at the University of Ghent, in addition to studying piano with Marcel Gazelle at the Conservatory in Ghent. During that time, he founded the Collegium Vocale of Ghent (1969). Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt took notice of the young artist and promptly invited him and his newly organized ensemble to collaborate with them in a recording project that would document the entire catalog of Bach's cantatas. Continuing his education at the conservatory, Herreweghe studied the harpsichord with Johan Huys and organ with Gabriel Verschraegen.
Ambitious, to say the least, Herreweghe formed numerous ensembles that each respectively acted as a performance vehicle for specific genres and periods of composition, resulting in numerous recordings for the Harmonia Mundi label. His Ensemble Vocale Elysées specialized and concentrated on the work of Bach and his predecessors. The Ensemble La Chapelle Royale (founded with Philippe Beaussant in 1977) focused on music from the French Baroque, as well as vocal scores from the Classical and Romantic eras. The Ensemble Vocale Européen (founded 1989) concentrated on Renaissance polyphony, while the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (founded 1991), an original instrument ensemble, performed literature from the Classical and Romantic periods. Herreweghe divides his time in thirds and spends one with early music, one with the Romantic repertoire, and the last third with contemporary compositions. In an interview with La Scena Musicale (November 1997), the conductor described his ensembles as a "poupée russe, you know, those Russian dolls that fit one inside the other." The core Baroque group is Collegium Vocale. For bigger works and French Baroque pieces, it may be enlarged as La Chapelle Royale. and for Classical and Romantic-era music, still more players are added to form the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.
In addition to all his own groups, Herreweghe has guest conducted many prestigious ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City, among others. Herreweghe assumed the position of music director of the Festival of Saintes in 1982. He began his long career with Harmonia Mundi in 1989, releasing an album of music by Henry Dumont. In the year 1992 alone, he released 23 albums.
The conductor, nominated for Musical Personality of the Year (1990), has received many more awards, including European Musician of the Year (1991), Cultural Ambassador of Flanders with his Collegium Chorale (1993), and the order of Officer of Arts and Letters (1994). Herreweghe assumed the post of music director of the Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997, and beginning in 2002, served as its principal conductor (it is now the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and Herreweghe remains honorary conductor). From 2008 to 2013, he was the principal guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. He has continued to record for Harmonia Mundi but has also issued albums on various smaller labels, including, especially in the 2010s, Phi and PentaTone Classics. The range of Romantic and contemporary music Herreweghe has conducted on recordings is perhaps greater than that of any other conductor associated with the early music movement and includes a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, masses by Palestrina, Dvořák's Requiem mass, choral music by Stravinsky, and much more. On Harmonia Mundi, he and Collegium Vocale released an album of five-part madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo in 2021.
© David Brensilver & James Manheim /TiVo
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Bach : Johannes-Passion, BWV 245
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 07.02.2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Motets (Intégrale)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Geistliche Chormusik - Erschienen bei Phi am 26.05.2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: 'Meins Lebens Licht' Cantatas BWV 45-198 & Motet BWV 118
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 19.03.2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Advent Cantatas (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 01.08.1997
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré : Requiem, Op. 48 (version 1893)
Messen, Passionen, Requiems - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 31.07.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Early Music Log: J.S Bach
Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman
Klassik - Erschienen bei FIN am 03.11.2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Leipzig Cantatas BWV 101, 103 & 115
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Geistliche Kantaten - Erschienen bei Phi am 01.09.2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Oster-Oratorium, BWV 249 (2023 Remastered Version)
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 01.02.1995
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Joseph Haydn : Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons / Les Saisons)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe Herreweghe
Weltliche Vokalmusik - Erschienen bei Phi am 08.04.2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd: Infelix ego, Mass for 5 Voices & Motets
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 03.11.2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tomas Luis de Victoria : Officium Defunctorum
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 15.05.2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Sonn und Schild. Cantatas BWV 4, 79, 80
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Geistliche Kantaten - Erschienen bei Phi am 21.09.2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Requiem, Op. 89
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Messen, Passionen, Requiems - Erschienen bei Phi am 23.03.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Missa in h-moll
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 24.01.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ludwig van Beethoven : Missa solemnis
Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 06.11.2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach : Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (Passion selon saint Matthieu)
Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 31.07.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Mass in B Minor (Véronique Gens - Christoph Prégardien - Hanno Müller-Brachmann - Collegium Vocale Gent - Philippe Herreweghe)
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 31.07.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Motetten, BWV 225-230
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 26.05.2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Christmas Cantatas (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Klassik - Erschienen bei harmonia mundi am 01.09.1996
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Ich elender Mensch & Leipzig Cantatas (BWV 44, 48, 73, 109)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Geistliche Kantaten - Erschienen bei Phi am 20.12.2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johannes Brahms : Œuvres pour chœur & orchestre
Ann Hallenberg, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe Herreweghe
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phi am 10.11.2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo