IanBostridge CBE

Press

• Twilight Schumann Songs with Saskia Giorgini

  Pentatone recording

  Feb 2025

  • Bostridge’s performances of all these songs have a wonderful clarity and sensitivity. He so obviously cares deeply about the texts and ensures that he delivers them with such vividness and clarity that there is not a syllable out of place.

    • Andrew Clements, The Guardian
    • 21 February 2025

  • In Bostridge's vast discography, this is one of his best [Editor's Choice]

    • David Patrick Stearns, Gramophone

  • It's a repertoire that is perfectly matched to Bostridge's gifts ... Every word matters as he turns the shortest lyric into a story of the heart.

    • Christopher Cook, BBC Music Magazine

• Schubert - Ian Bostridge & Steven Osborne

  Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

  Aug 2024

  • This duo proved a well-matched pair, two intelligent minds unafraid to open up to wilder expressive opportunities, as in Osborne’s thundering final chord of In Der Ferne, or the weight-of-the-world anguish in Bostridge’s Der Atlas.

    • Ken Walton, The Scotsman
    • 15 August 2024

  • ...Bostridge was so skilled at entering into every song’s little universe. Every consonant mattered, every musical phrase was carefully considered so as to convey meaning and enrich the listener’s understanding... He’s now more associated with characters of age and experience, even cynicism, but he showed such uncanny ability to enter into the spirit of Schubert’s love songs that you never for a second questioned it.

    • Simon Thompson, The Arts Desk
    • 16 August 2024

  • Tenor, Ian Bostridge, one of the foremost living interpreters of Schubert, simply dives into the emotions of each song. The non-sequential emotional subtexts of each are no barrier... Bostridge has an excellent voice for Schubert’s melodic adventures, pure and powerful, and capable of great meaning.

    • William Quinn, The Quinntessential Review
    • 17 August 2024

  • From the calm of Liebesbotschaft to the literary cuckoo in the nest – the breezy closing setting of Seidl’s Die Taubenpost – it was the sense of unwavering conviction that won the day.

    • Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx
    • 17 August 2024

• Britten - Cello Sonata (Bach Aria Encore)

  Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival

  Jul 2024

  • In 1961, the audience’s reception was so warm the soloists reprised the Scherzo-Pizzicato of the sonata, and then were joined by Peter Pears on stage for a Bach aria. The new, meticulous recreation brought on star tenor Ian Bostridge for that second encore, an addition that was ecstatically received.

    • Claire Jackson, The Big Issue
    • 01 August 2024

• Britten - Curlew River (The Madwoman)

  Aldeburgh Festival, Suffolk

  Jun 2024

  • ...if Ian Bostridge has given a better stage performance than this, as the distraught Madwoman searching for her abducted son, I haven't seen it. His face convulsed with grief, his vocal delivery sometimes scrambled like the Madwoman's mind, elsewhere seemingly powered by pure anguish, he was the focal point of Deborah Warner's spare but telling production, often delivering his lines from a wooden jetty stretching right through the audience.

    • Richard Morrison, The Times
    • 23 June 2024

  • Ian Bostridge was superb as the Madwoman, clutching her soiled sleeping bag like any distressed homeless person, that well-known fluty tenor voice cracked with grief.

    • Simon Heffer, The Telegraph
    • 23 June 2024

  • The cast is first rate, with tenor Ian Bostridge - a long-time Britten specialist - as the Madwoman deranged by grief for her abducted son who, she discovers, perished after crossing the river. Wearing a soiled yellow dress and clutching a mangy duvet and broken umbrella, Bostridge projects the mother's despair with visceral force and a vocal power that remains undiminished as he approaches the age of 60.

    • Edward Bhesania, The Stage
    • 24 June 2024

  • For Ian Bostridge, fresh from a run of performances of Schubert’s Winterreise, this was a deeper foray into the torment of loss, his Madwoman wearing a tattered dress and a man’s jacket, clutching a quilt, evidence of the year-long quest. He conveyed vividly the mother’s pain, his tenor voice these days altogether fuller-bodied, ringing out through the church and incredibly affecting.

    • Rian Evans, The Guardian
    • 24 June 2024

  • A small, exceptional and gifted cast was led by Ian Bostridge as the Madwoman. Shabbily dressed in a lemon-green dress and dark jacket, a broken umbrella is held in one hand and seemingly wandering as a ‘homeless’ person, this rather sad and confused character is travelling with a rather worn and well-used duvet. Grief-stricken, agitated and distressed, looking for her long-lost son took its toil with the role (created for Peter Pears) vividly portrayed by Bostridge who played the part to the full delivering an honest and convincing account while his acting abilities handsomely matched his vocal prowess.

    • Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
    • 26 June 2024

• Schubert - Winterreise

  Ustinov Studio, Bath

  Jun 2024

  • Against this stark background, Bostridge and Drake carefully ratchet up the cycle’s intrinsic drama, unconstrained by the parameters of a recital realising a far wider range of dynamics and instrumental colour than usual(...)with Bostridge bringing to the illusory, dreamlike, incursions into the major an almost ecstatic air of delusion. He is a singer who always conveys a restless intensity: here there was torment, anger, fiery passion, icy resignation, a mirror to Schubert’s existential anguish, but also in this wanderer the representation of every individual who has suffered loss and the darkest despair. Pushed to extremes, lines could carry a manic force or a whispered precision.

    • The Guardian
    • 12 June 2024

  • For an hour and ten minuets, with scarcely a moment’s rest, internationally renowned tenor Ian Bostridge takes us through the life of a man for whom life has lost its meaning with the harshness of winter upon him(...) Ian Bostridge marries his facial and body movements so tightly to his emotions that even without the translation [it is sung in German] unobtrusively placed towards the rear of the stage, you could follow his every thought, belief and desire.

    • The Fine Times Recorder
    • 13 June 2024

• La Capella Neapolitana Tour

  Pordenone, Trieste, Naples - Italy

  Apr 2024 - Apr 2024

  • Protagonista Ian Bostridge, uno dei massimi musicisti del nostro tempo, per la prima volta sia a Pordenone sia a Trieste insieme a La Cappella Neapolitana diretta da Antonio Florio, musicista raffinato, uomo colto e di una classe che solo i napoletani possono vantare. The protagonist was Ian Bostridge, one of the greatest musicians of our time, for the first time both in Pordenone and Trieste together with La Cappella Neapolitana conducted by Antonio Florio, a refined musician, a cultured man of class that only Neapolitans can boast.

    • Rino Alessi, Le Salon Musical
    • 08 April 2024

  • L’inglese Ian Bostridge, uno dei tenori più noti per quanto riguarda il repertorio liederistico, è stato protagonista del concerto che l’Associazione Alessandro Scarlatti ha organizzato al Teatro Sannazaro di Napoli. Englishman Ian Bostridge, one of the best-known tenors in the lieder repertoire, was the star of the concert that the Associazione Alessandro Scarlatti organised at the Sannazaro Theatre in Naples.

    • Lorenzo Fiorito, Rivista Musica
    • 13 April 2024

  • Dall'incontro tra l'eccellente tenore inglese Ian Bostridge e la Cappella Neapolitana di Antonio Floria, ensemble di specialisti nasce il progetto ,Tormento d'amore…il tenore proietta ogni parola nella giusta luce, da un senso ad arie e recitativi, si cala con coerenza nella trama sonora che la Cappella Neapolitana e Florio tessono sapientemente. From the encounter between the excellent English tenor Ian Bostridge and the Cappella Neapolitana of Antonio Floria, an ensemble of specialists, comes the project, Tormento d'amore… the tenor casts every word in the right light, gives meaning to arias and recitatives, and coherently fits into the sound texture that the Cappella Neapolitana and Florio skilfully weave.

    • Stefano Valanzuolo, Il Mattino
    • 13 April 2024

  • Ian Bostridge – ... voce, arguzia, dominio tecnico, tanto talento – rappresenta uno dei casi più vistosi di come sia genuino passare da Schubert a Hendel, da Britten a Provenzale. ... Dominante Bostridge, voce squadrata, forte e policroma, di vistoso fascino, con grande scolpitura e accento nelle parole chiave. Ian Bostridge - ... voice, wit, technical mastery, a lot of talent - represents one of the most striking cases of how genuine it is to go from Schubert to Handel, from Britten to Provenzale. ... Dominant Bostridge, a square, strong, polychromatic voice of conspicuous charm, with great sculpture and accent in the key words.

    • Salvatore Morra, Giornale della Musica
    • 16 April 2024

• Schubert - Winterreise

  Herbst Theatre

  Oct 2023

  • Bostridge’s commanding performance on Saturday reflected his long history with the piece, which he kept impressively alive and spontaneous here...As an interpreter, Bostridge emphasizes the cracks and fissures of a piece that ambitiously embraces narrative and anti-narrative, music and anti-music, hope and desperation. Although he has matured since his first encounters with Winterreise, the tenor managed to create an ageless protagonist at Herbst, a character who could move in an instant from the quivering hotheadedness of youth to the world-weariness of old age, from Hamlet to Lear. Bostridge’s strength lies in his ability to bring out the music’s constantly shifting moods...He paid fastidious attention to textual detail. The German diction was crisp, every poetic verse finely chiseled and variegated...In “Der Lindenbaum” (The linden tree), a folklike ballad about the peacefulness of nature, Bostridge achieved a remarkable blend of self-assured fullness and intimate delicacy, which yielded precipitously to the burning grief of “Wasserflut” (Flood)...On Saturday, Bostridge proved that this devastating work is worth hearing again (and again and again), not because it is a universal story but because it is such a particular one. By confronting head-on the crags and rivulets of this nameless protagonist’s psyche, the hope is that we may learn something about ourselves.

    • Simon Cohen, SF Classical Voice
    • 24 October 2023

• Britten Songs

  Theatre Royal Bath, Ustinov Theatre

  Sep 2023

  • ...Ian Bostridge gave a memorable recital, proving just how appropriate a space it is for such performances. The Ustinov is small and darkly intimate, and Bostridge and his pianist, Julius Drake, used the acoustic to great effect, with a pianissimo that would be impossible in most venues carrying wonderfully here...Britten’s instinct for word-setting and Bostridge’s own instinct for conveying meaning and emotion with disarming clarity made each song a little gem: the opening and closing pieces, with their references to the passage of time, carried a suitably philosophical weight. Bostridge’s gift for narrative elevated Hardy’s descriptions into tiny monodramas...Bostridge’s mellifluous line and careful inflection of key words always a delight. ★★★★

    • Rian Evans, The Guardian
    • 02 October 2023

• Works by Lambert, Corelli, Purcell & Handel

  Trifolion Echternach

  Oct 2023

  • Bostridge’s light lyrical tenor is the ideal instrument through which to convey the amorous strategies of these Gallic texts and musical mannerisms, and if originally the airs would have been most likely accompanied by lute then here the small instrumental forces...balanced perfectly, and with timbral variety, with the melting vocal melodies...Bostridge’s sensitivity to the passionate, sometimes wry, lyrics was exquisite. One could not have doubted that, whether the tone was haunting or humorous, romantic or ribald, love was at the core. ‘Ombre de mon amant’ (Shadow of my lover) lies fairly low in the tenor range, and the opening was appropriately dark, but Lambert’s characteristic ornamentations of the vocal line, and upwards-reaching appoggiaturas imbued lightness and lift, and the repeated, tortured cry, “Hélas! que voulez-vous! je meurs”, was vivid in its pained intensity...The final song, ‘Rochers, vous êtes sourds’ (Rocks, are you deaf?) was an elaborate exhortation, richer and more decorative...but always delivered with a delicious lightness. These songs are delicate and precious – the palette is pastel not primary – but the moods linger, even as the poet-singers languish, and Bostridge hinted at the emotive exuberance beneath the surface purity...Bostridge, characteristically, made much of the melismatic weeping in ‘Mie pupille’, his light tenor just right for the languid despondency of “lacrimar”, and paradoxically both deepened and sweetened by the violins’ softening thirds. ‘Di gelosia il timore’ was fast and furious, with full but springy instrumental textures and incisive motifs and accents. Bostridge again made much of the text, sometimes seeming to spit out the shepherd’s riling resentment. The stylistic sensitivity that had characterised the whole concert was much in evidence here...‘Where’er you walk’ from Handel’s Semele was the evening’s encore, the subtle sophistication of the musical and verbal nuance intensely expressive and satisfying.

    • Claire Seymour, Opera Today
    • 06 October 2023

• Works by Vaughan Williams, Holst Warlock & White

  Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Ghent

  Apr 2023

  • Al is hij – wat mij betreft – ook zowat onovertroffen bij de tenoren als liedzanger voor het romantische repertoire, als authentiek Brits zanger is dit repertoire hem letterlijk op het lijf geschreven...Behalve een selectie uit Along the field en het bekendere On Wenlock Edge van Ralph Vaughan Williams, vertolkte Bostridge liederen van Peter Warlock en een lange klaagzang van Felix White: The Nymph’s Complaint for the Death of her Fawn (1922). Een tekst van Andrew Marvell over de dood van het favoriete reetje van de nimf gedood door jagers. Bostridge voelde zich duidelijk als een vis in het water in het gekozen repertoire. Met zijn typische bijna nonchalante maar tegelijk zelfverzekerde spontaneïteit musiceerde hij in absolute harmonie met het kamerensemble dat zijn ideale partner was. De ietwat wrange, soms bittere klank van zijn stem staat nergens de souplesse in de weg. Het is een aspect van zijn fascinatie als zanger en het beklemtoonde  hier perfect de inhoud van de liederen, maar het belet hem niet feilloze overgangen te maken van hoge tonaliteit naar diepe klanken. De stem draagt en blijft gaaf. Dit recital bewees eens te meer over wat een fenomenale stembeheersing Bostridge beschikt. Gepaard aan het repertoire dat hem bijzonder goed ligt, werd het recital een werkelijke topervaring. Although – as far as I'm concerned – he is also almost unsurpassed among the tenors as a singer for the romantic repertoire, as an authentic British singer this repertoire is literally perfect for him...In addition to a selection from Along the field and the better-known On Wenlock Edge by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bostridge performed songs by Peter Warlock and a long lament by Felix White: The Nymph's Complaint for the Death of her Fawn (1922). A text by Andrew Marvell about the death of the nymph's favorite deer killed by hunters. Bostridge clearly felt like a fish in water in the chosen repertoire. With his typical, almost nonchalant but at the same time confident spontaneity, he made music in absolute harmony with the chamber ensemble that was his ideal partner. The somewhat wry, sometimes bitter sound of his voice never stands in the way of flexibility. It is an aspect of his fascination as a singer and it perfectly emphasized the content of the songs here, but it does not prevent him from making flawless transitions from high tonality to deep sounds. The voice carries and remains intact. This recital proved once again what a phenomenal voice control Bostridge possesses. Combined with the repertoire that suits him particularly well, the recital became a truly top experience.

    • Lucrèce Maeckelbergh, Klassiek Centraal
    • 03 May 2023

• Bach - St Matthew Passion (Evangelist)

  Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence

  Apr 2023

  • As the Evangelist, Ian Bostridge offered a dramatic reading...His range is perfect for the role, his extreme upper register almost trumpet-like; and angst and Bostridge are musical friends, given his speciality is Schubert’s Winterreise. His diction, too, was nicely allied to the dramatic delivery, tracing natural speech rhythms.

    • Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
    • 14 April 2023

• Armide (Renaud)

  Opéra Comique

  Nov 2022

  • The two main stars of the night, Véronique Gens and Ian Bostridge, singing Armide and Renaud, do not try to abstract themselves from their own—very recognizable—artistic personas. Their voices and stage presences underline the textual subtleties, making the experience as much about Gens and Bostridge reading Armide and Renaud’s struggles through their voices as about Armide and Renaud themselves—as if it were a song-cycle recital where people wore costumes. As result, this leading couple does not attempt to discover any youthfulness but rather builds their performances through musical maturity. “Armide” becomes, then, about how fully built individuals face love being so knowledgeable about everything else. Thus, their vocal maturity plays an essential role in the staging itself...Ian Bostridge also thrives in singing the French alexandrine, and much of his phrasing comes from the textual inflections itself—a quality that has made him so recognizable singing lieder. It is particularly enjoyable how he fades his voice in the third act, when Armide’s demons finally lull him to sleep (“Ce gazon, cet ombrage frais, Tout m’invite au repos sous ce feuillage épais.”/ “This grass, this fresh shade, Everything invites me to rest under these thick bushes.”) Few artists could sing such phrases without failing into tackiness. Bostridge himself presents a rather mature voice, making his Renaud artistically rich, but not juvenile. The tenor, whose sharp timbre is very recognizable, is darker and louder than it used to be, giving to his Renaud something of his own maturity.

    • João Marcos Copertino, Opera Wire
    • 15 November 2022

  • ...ténor Ian Bostridge, ciselant la prosodie sans perdre en legato, timbrant avec une grande variété de couleurs, jusqu’à l’aigu claironnant évoquant Wunderlich. ...tenor Ian Bostridge's Renaud, chiseling the prosody without losing legato, striking with a wide variety of colors, up to the trumpeting treble reminiscent of Wunderlich.

    • Eric Dahan, Libération
    • 08 November 2022

  • Faced with this star, Ian Bostridge 's Renaud hardly pales, despite the idiosyncrasies of the show and thanks to the persuasive power of a feverish song, to a diction that is always precise too, barely hinting at a hint of a British accent . which cannot disturb the boldness of this knight. Face à cet astre, le Renaud de Ian Bostridge ne pâlit guère, malgré les idiosyncrasies de l’émission et grâce au pouvoir de persuasion d’un chant fiévreux, à une diction toujours précise aussi, laissant tout juste deviner une pointe d’accent british qui ne saurait troubler les hardiesses de ce chevalier.

    • Emmanuel Dupuy, Diapason
    • 07 November 2022

  • Avec ses faux airs à la Lawrence d’Arabie, le Renaud de Ian Bostridge impose l’image même de la poésie et de la séduction. On pourra certes chipoter sur telle accentuation torturée, telle voyelle trop ouverte, mais l’expressivité fiévreuse et tourmentée du ténor britannique confère au personnage une profondeur inhabituelle. With its fake Lawrence of Arabia airs, Ian Bostridge's Renaud imposes the very image of poetry and seduction...the feverish and tormented expressiveness of the British tenor gives the character an unusual depth.

    • Marie-Aude Roux, Le Monde
    • 09 November 2022

  • ...dramatiquement aussi engagé que sa partenaire, Ian Bostridge campe un Renaud viril à la voix large, sonore, presque surdimensionnée pour la salle Favart. De sa longue expérience du récital, surtout en langue allemande, le ténor britannique a lui aussi recueilli les fruits et même si une pointe d’accent trahi son anglicité, il est capable de liaisons piégeuses que bien des chanteurs francophones oublient de prononcer (dans la première scène de l’acte V, Ian Bostridge prononce « mo nespoir » comme un vrai titi parisien). Présent en scène durant les seuls actes II et V, il réussit néanmoins à colorer le personnage de Renaud d’une palette de sentiments qui vont de la fatuité à la docilité amoureuse jusqu’au moment où, grâce à l’aide de ses compagnons d’armes, il retrouve sa lucidité et la force d’abandonner Armide à qui il préfère les mâles accents de la gloire. La preuve enfin de l’adéquation de Ian Bostridge à l’esthétique gluckiste tient dans l’aisance avec laquelle il se coule dans les choix de tempi audacieux de Christophe Rousset : la ritournelle « Quand on peut mépriser le charme de l’amour » est délivrée avec aplomb, d’une voix pleine et virile. ...as dramatically committed as his partner, Ian Bostridge portrays a virile Renaud with a broad, sonorous voice, almost oversized for the Favart room. From his long experience of recital, especially in German, the British tenor has also reaped the fruits and even if a touch of accent betrays his Englishness, he is capable of tricky connections that many French-speaking singers forget to pronounce (in the first scene of Act V, Ian Bostridge pronounces “my hope” like a real Parisian titi). Present on stage only during acts II and V, he nevertheless succeeds in coloring the character of Renaud with a range of feelings which range from conceit to loving docility until the moment when, thanks to the help of his companions arms, he regains his lucidity and the strength to abandon Armide to whom he prefers the masculine accents of glory. Finally, proof of Ian Bostridge's suitability for the Gluckist aesthetic lies in the ease with which he flows into Christophe Rousset's audacious tempi choices : the refrain "When we can despise the charm of love" is delivered with aplomb, in a full and virile voice.

    • Nicolas Le Clerre, Première Loge
    • 08 November 2022

  • ...Ian Bostridge made the most of it with mellifluous tone and intense accenting.

    • David Karlin, Bachtrack
    • 12 November 2022

  • ...Renault (Ian Bostridge célèbre ténor) ne démérite pas face à cette interprétation exemplaire de Véronique Gens. Leur duo d’amour, puis le désespoir d’Armide lorsque Renaud la fuit sont des grands moments d’opéra. ...Renault (famous tenor Ian Bostridge) does not fail in the face of this exemplary interpretation by Véronique Gens. Their love duet, then Armide's despair when Renaud flees her are great moments in opera.

    • Louis-Marie Picard, Radio Notre Dame
    • 10 November 2022

  • La parte di Renaud è stata affidata invece a Ian Bostridge, tenore inglese dal bel timbro e di buona potenza... The part of Renaud was instead entrusted to Ian Bostridge, an English tenor with a beautiful timbre and good power...

    • Alma Torretta, Giornale della Musica
    • 14 November 2022

  • ...Ian Bostridge offre sa diction presque sculptée et son timbre à la fois viril et innocent, d’une lumière irréelle... ...Ian Bostridge offers his almost sculpted diction and his tone both virile and innocent, with an unreal light...

    • Christian Wasselin, Web Theatre
    • 08 November 2022

  • ...I rather liked the force and intensity of Bostridge’s portrayal, which felt very much in keeping with the unyielding heroism of Renaud’s character.

    • Callum John Blackmore, Parterre Box
    • 07 November 2022