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| Peter Schreier | |
|---|---|
| Name | Peter Schreier |
| Birth date | 29 July 1935 |
| Birth place | Meissen, Saxony, Germany |
| Death date | 25 December 2019 |
| Death place | Dresden, Saxony, Germany |
| Occupation | Tenor, Conductor |
| Years active | 1959–2010 |
Peter Schreier
Peter Schreier was a German lyric tenor and conductor renowned for his interpretations of Bach, Mozart, and lieder. He achieved international acclaim through performances with leading ensembles and conductors and through a prolific discography that spans oratorio, opera, and art song. Schreier's career connected institutions, festivals, and recordings across Europe, the United States, and Japan.
Born in Meissen in the Free State of Saxony, Schreier trained initially at the Dresden Conservatory and the Musikhochschule Dresden, where he studied under Alfred Struengmann and Marianne Fischer-Kupfer. His early development was influenced by teachers associated with the Dresden State Opera and pedagogues linked to the legacy of Richard Wagner and Carl Maria von Weber. As a youth, Schreier sang in the church choirs of Dresden Cathedral and participated in performances connected to the cultural life of the German Democratic Republic alongside colleagues from the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Staatskapelle Dresden tradition.
Schreier made his professional debut at the Dresden State Opera and became a principal tenor at the Berlin State Opera and a frequent soloist with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He worked with conductors including Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Otto Klemperer, Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, Georg Solti, and Sir Colin Davis. Schreier appeared at major venues and festivals such as the Wiener Staatsoper, La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the Salzburg Festival, the Bayreuth Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Tonhalle Zürich, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. He collaborated with singers including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hans Hotter, Fritz Wunderlich, Christa Ludwig, Gwyneth Jones, Montserrat Caballé, Leontyne Price, Birgit Nilsson, Rita Streich, Rudolf Kempe, Hermann Prey, and Kiri Te Kanawa.
Schreier was celebrated for his performances in works by Johann Sebastian Bach—notably the Evangelist roles in the St Matthew Passion and the St John Passion—and in the tenor solos of the Mass in B minor. He recorded extensively for labels associated with projects led by Archiv Produktion, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips Records, EMI Classics, and Sony Classical alongside ensembles like the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. His operatic roles included Tamino in The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and roles in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Richard Strauss, Hector Berlioz, Giacomo Puccini, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Schreier's lieder repertoire encompassed songs by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Franz Liszt, Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Ernst Krenek, Paul Hindemith, and Curtis Institute of Music-trained accompanists. He produced landmark recordings of the Bach cantatas cycles, the Christmas Oratorio, and performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
In later decades Schreier transitioned increasingly into conducting, leading ensembles such as the Dresden Philharmonic, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Vienna Symphony, the Münchener Philharmoniker, and chamber groups across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He conducted staged opera productions at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Staatstheater Nürnberg, and festivals including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Salzburg Festival. His conducting collaborations included work with soloists tied to institutions like the Royal College of Music, the Moscow Conservatory, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the Juilliard School. Schreier continued to give masterclasses and to mentor younger singers in programs associated with the Berlin University of the Arts and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin.
Schreier received numerous honours including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Pour le Mérite (civil class), the Bach Medal Leipzig, the Goldener Beethoven-Preis, the Grammy Award nominations and critical prizes from institutions such as the Académie Charles Cros and the International Classical Music Awards. He was appointed an honorary member of the Berlin State Opera and received honorary doctorates from the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and other universities. His legacy is preserved in archives of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden and in recorded collections held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and major broadcasting archives like Deutsche Welle and BBC Radio 3.
Category:German tenors Category:German conductors (music) Category:1935 births Category:2019 deaths