Thomas Hampson

Thomas Hampson’s decades-long championing of the music of Gustav Mahler reaches new heights in the coming weeks with the release of his new recording with the Wiener Virtuosen of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn on Deutsche Grammophon (Dec 21).  Music-lovers worldwide will have the chance to preview the new release when it is available for streaming in its entirety as part of NPR Music’s popular “First Listen” series (Dec 13-21, at www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen).  Soon after, Hampson heads to New York to sing the composer’s Kindertotenlieder in three concerts with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Alan Gilbert (Jan 6-8).  While in New York, Hampson will perform and discuss songs by Mahler – as well as music by Schubert, Schumann, and some American composers – in a front of a live studio audience at the the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR (Jan 10).  This will be broadcast live at 7pm on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR and www.wqxr.org and available as a live video webcast at www.thegreenespace.org.  The music of Gustav Mahler, who was born 150 years ago and died a century ago next May, is the centerpiece of Hampson’s 2010-11 season, when the baritone will perform Mahler’s music in 50 recital and concert programs with the world’s greatest orchestras and leading conductors.  A film crew has been following Hampson throughout his Mahler odyssey, preparing a documentary about Mahler’s life and music that will be broadcast this spring in Europe.

Read More »

The San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy®-winning Mahler recording cycle, launched in 2001 on its own SFS Media™ label, comes to a close this season with the release of Mahler’s Songs with Orchestra, available now on iTunes and on CD September 14. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas leads the Orchestra and Susan Graham performing Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. Of Thomas Hampson’s performance of selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, SFCV.org says “Never do voice and orchestral musicians seem more closely, almost spiritually, aligned than they do in the concluding ‘Primal Light’ of Wunderhorn.” Hampson and the Orchestra also contributeLieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) to this “meditative coda to a genuinely heroic effort” (SFCV.org). Watch a video about the making of Songs with Orchestra here. Download today on iTunes or pre-order your copy of the CD at sfsymphony.org/store.
Mercury News: Tuned In: S.F. Symphony brings its Mahler recording project to a brilliant close

For music lovers based in and around New York City, the next few weeks offer a bonanza of Hampson events including a lecture this evening at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, a recital at Alice Tully Hall on April 11, and two CONTACT! concerts with the New York Philharmonic on April 16 and 17, all part of Hampson’s year-long residency with the orchestra. And for listeners across the world, newly-released recordings from the New York Philharmonic offer the opportunity to hear Hampson with the Philharmonic  and its music director, Alan Gilbert, in two diverse programs, available for download at iTunes and and at other on-line retailers.

Read More »

“If American song needs an evangelist, no one is better equipped to do the right job than Thomas Hampson,” says the Chicago Tribune.  The American baritone’s commitment to the songs of his home country is well known, and his frequent “Song of America” concerts help prove the point.  Now Hampson has recorded and released Wondrous Free, a 22-track selection of American songs, under his own imprint, THM (Thomas Hampson Media), available on iTunes, ArkivMusic and Amazon.