Sophie Karthäuser
Soprano Sophie Karthäuser has been called a born Mozartian, but she attained that status through training and experience, not birth. With some exceptions, Mozart and Haydn are at the chronological tail end of her repertoire, and she has been ideally situated as historical-instrument ensembles and conductors have moved into Classical-era repertory and beyond.
Karthäuser was born in May of 1974 in Malmedy, in Walloon, Belgium. She wanted to emulate her older sister, a clarinetist in a regional orchestra, and, since she was still a small child, she was given lessons on the easier recorder before moving on to clarinet. Karthäuser also sang in a local church choir and gradually started to move toward vocal music, beginning lessons at 16 with Belgian teachers, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, and making a commitment due to the twin stimuli of winning Belgium's Förderpreis and a scholarship to Britain's Guildhall School of Music. At Guildhall, Karthäuser studied with soprano Noelle Barker, whose orientation was toward contemporary music, and took some private lessons with the legendary Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in great old age. However, Karthäuser gravitated toward the Baroque and Classical eras. Her operatic debut came as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, and after graduating from Guildhall, she found herself in demand from such conductors as William Christie (for whom she sang the role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro), René Jacobs (several roles, including Polissena in Handel's Radamisto), Emmanuelle Haïm (Charpentier's Medée at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris), and many others. She made her recording debut in 2003 on a recording of music by André Modest Grétry with the early music ensemble Les Agrémens; that album, on the Ricercar label, earned a Diapason découverte new discovery award.
A fixture of Baroque opera stages in the 2000s and 2010s, Karthäuser joined Jacobs for a multi-venue touring performance of Haydn's Die Schöpfung during the 2015-2016 season. After winning the audience prize at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition in 2003, Karthäuser also experienced expanding success as a recitalist, performing with a variety of accompanists, including Eugene Asti. Karthäuser's recitals and song recordings tended toward later eras than those of her orchestral concert appearances; she released an album of Poulenc songs and, in 2016, Kennst du das Land?, a collection of songs by Hugo Wolf with Asti. Her recordings of Baroque music, often quite adventurous, have been honored with prizes, including the prestigious Diapason d'Or for a recording of Michel Richard de Lalande's weighty Leçons de Ténèbres with Sébastien Daucé and his Ensemble Correspondances (2015). Since the mid-2010s, Karthäuser has recorded mostly for the Harmonia Mundi label, where in 2022, she was heard with Les Arts Florissants on a recording of Vivaldi's hypothetical Great Venetian Mass.
© Blair Sanderson & James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Vivaldi: The Great Venetian Mass
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew, Sophie Karthäuser, Lucile Richardot
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by harmonia mundi on 24/06/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Les anges musiciens...
Sophie Karthäuser, Eugene Asti
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by harmonia mundi on 21/04/2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jean Cras : La Flûte de Pan - Quintettes
Classical - Released by Passacaille on 16/09/2019
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn : L'Impatiente
Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin, Sophie Karthäuser
Classical - Released by Aparté on 4/10/2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Michel Richard Delalande : Leçons de Ténèbres
Sophie Karthäuser, Ensemble Correspondances and Sébastien Daucé
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 9/03/2015
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Harmonie du soir, mélodies & songs
Alain Planès, Eugene Asti, Sophie Karthäuser, Stéphane Degout
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 24/08/2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Le Bal des animaux
Sophie Karthäuser, Eugene Asti, Dominique Visse
Mélodies - Released by harmonia mundi on 9/11/2018
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Dialogkantaten, BWV 32, 49 & 57
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Raphael Alpermann, Michael Volle, Sophie Karthäuser, Members of RIAS Kammerchor
Cantatas (sacred) - Released by harmonia mundi on 25/05/2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Cantates (Intégrale, volume 1)
Classical - Released by Accent on 1/01/2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolf: Kennst du das Land
Sophie Karthäuser, Eugene Asti
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by harmonia mundi on 29/04/2016
Choc de ClassicaGramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Stabat Mater
Sophie Karthäuser, Les Folies Françoises, Patrick Cöhen-Akenine
Classical - Released by Ricercar on 1/01/2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Airs de Mozart ("Live" au Théâtre de la Monnaie)
Sophie Karthäuser, Symphony Orchestra of La Monnaie/De Munt, Inge Spinette
Classical - Released by Cypres on 4/11/2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry : Airs & Ballets
Sophie Karthäuser, Les Agrémens, Guy Van Waas
Classical - Released by Ricercar on 1/01/2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Complete Songs
Sophie Karthäuser, Stephan Loges, Eugene Asti
Classical - Released by Cypres on 8/05/2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart the Magician; Songs and Fortepiano Pieces
Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Hans-Jörg Mammel, Monique Simon, Sophie Karthäuser
Classical - Released by Donemus Musicians' Voice on 21/06/2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo