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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Igor Stravinsky : Monumentum - Mass - Symphonie de Psaumes
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Apr 2010
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 May 1990
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Mass in B Minor (Véronique Gens - Christoph Prégardien - Hanno Müller-Brachmann - Collegium Vocale Gent - Philippe Herreweghe)
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 31 Jul 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Il quarto libro de madrigali
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released by Phi on 6 May 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées
Classical - Released by Phi on 28 Oct 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré : Requiem (Version 1901 pour grand orchestre)
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent, La Chapelle Royale
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 16 Apr 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Stabat Mater
Philippe Herreweghe, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by Phi on 12 Mar 2013
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released by Phi on 1 Jan 1992
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Requiem (Philippe Herreweghe)
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 10 Oct 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Ich elender Mensch & Leipzig Cantatas (BWV 44, 48, 73, 109)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Cantatas (sacred) - Released by Phi on 20 Dec 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas for Alto Solo (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 1998
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Messe en ut mineur
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 May 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Magnificat & Christmas Cantata, BWV 63
Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 17 Dec 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Adventskantaten (Philippe Herreweghe)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Aug 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3
Philippe Herreweghe, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Phi on 10 Nov 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Weinen, Klagen, … (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 2005
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert : Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe
Symphonies - Released by Phi on 1 Dec 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released by Phi on 1 Nov 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Jesu, deine Passion (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Feb 2009
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gesualdo: O dolce mio tesoro. Madrigali a cinque voci, Libro sesto (1611)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released by Phi on 28 Oct 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas for Bass (Remastered)
Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Dec 1991
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo