Rene Jacobs has been highly successful in a unique dual career as a countertenor and conductor, specializing in vocal music of the Baroque period. He was a chorister in the Cathedral of his hometown of Ghent. Also the home of conductor Philippe Herreweghe, Ghent was a center of the movement to restore older music to the repertoire in authentic style performances. Jacobs studied classical philology at the University of Ghent while continuing hisRead more studies of singing in Brussels. He became acquainted with the Kuijken brothers (leading Baroque instrumentalists), Gustav Leonhardt (a top conductor on the authentic instruments scene), and Alfred Deller (a pioneering countertenor). They advised him to continue preparing for a singing career and correctly analyzed his voice as suitable for extension into the countertenor range. Jacobs' interest in Baroque music stems in part from his vocal type: many leading Baroque operatic roles were written for high male voices, either natural altos (countertenors) or artificial (castrati). Jacobs' growing fame as a countertenor led him to become a scholar of Baroque vocal music.
In 1977 he began an association with the Harmonia Mundi France record company, starting with performances with the Concerto Vocale. His early Harmonia Mundi records included vocal chamber music by Cesti, d'India, Ferrari, Marenzio, Lambert, Guédron, and others.
Soon afterwards his studies led him to conducting. Among his recordings and live performances, many of which were the first performances of these works in centuries, are Cesti's Orontea, Cavalli's Xerse and Giasone, Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Handel's Flavio and Giulio Cesare, Gluck's Le cinesi and Echo et Narcisse, Mozart's La finta semplice, and Conti's Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena. He performed in the complete operas of Monteverdi for the Salzburg Festival. As a conductor, he frequently appears with the Concerto Köln, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, and the RIAS-Kammerchor.
He has made over 100 recordings and won many of the major classical music record awards as both conductor and singer, including the Edison Award, Vivaldi Prize, the Gramophone Award, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, and the International Record Critics Award. In 1991 he was appointed artistic director of the opera programs of the Festwochen der Alten Musik of Innsbruck and teaches Baroque interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Read less
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 5908535
Release Date: 05/14/2013
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Pietro Antonio Locatelli,
Alessandro Scarlatti,
Marin Marais,
François Couperin
...
Performer:
Bernarda Fink,
Graciela Oddone,
Juan Manuel Quintana,
Dolores Costoyas
...
Conductor:
Gottfried Von der Goltz,
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra,
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Label: Euroarts
Catalog: 2057784
Release Date: 03/26/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Franz Joseph Haydn
Performer:
Arttu Kataja,
Victor Torres,
Thomas Randle,
Alexandrina Pendatchanska
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 902155
Release Date: 03/12/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Performer:
Sophie Karthäuser,
Christophe Dumaux,
Julian Behr,
Konstantin Wolff
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Label: Berlin Classics
Catalog: 300336
Release Date: 06/12/2012
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:
Theo Adam,
Hans Pischner,
E. Power Biggs,
Günther Leib
...
Conductor:
Helmut Koch,
Hans-Joachim Rotzsch,
Martin Flämig,
Rudolf Mauersberger
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Leipzig New Bach Collegium Musicum
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 2928223
Release Date: 11/08/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Franz Xaver Gruber,
Heinrich Schütz,
Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
Arcangelo Corelli
...
Performer:
Agnčs [Soprano Vocal] Mellon,
Chiara Banchini,
Andrew Lawrence-King,
René Saorgin
...
Conductor:
Uwe Gronostay,
René Jacobs,
William Christie,
Philippe Herreweghe
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Concerto Vocale,
Les Arts Florissants,
Ensemble 415
...
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 2921310
Release Date: 11/08/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Heinrich Schütz
Performer:
Martin Hummel,
Maria Cristina Kiehr,
Ulrich Messthaler,
Andreas Scholl
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Concerto Vocale
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 2908510
Release Date: 10/11/2011
Number of Discs: 10
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
Jacques Philidor,
Claudio Monteverdi
...
Performer:
Marie-Ange Petit,
Agnčs Mellon,
Guillemette Laurens,
Gregory Reinhart
...
Conductor:
William Christie,
Nicholas McGegan,
Philippe Herreweghe,
Chiara Banchini
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin,
Les Arts Florissants,
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 902088
Release Date: 10/11/2011
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
George Frideric Handel
Performer:
Neal Davies,
Marcos Fink,
Alexandrina Pendatchanska,
Bejun Mehta
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 2908601
Release Date: 10/01/2011
Number of Discs: 30
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Christoph W. Gluck,
Jean-Philippe Rameau,
George Frideric Handel
...
Performer:
Kobie van Rensburg,
Véronique Gens,
Patrizia Ciofi,
Marie McLaughlin
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs,
William Christie,
Daniel Reuss,
Philippe Herreweghe
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Concerto Cologne,
Cologne Collegium Vocale,
Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus
...
Recommendation
Label: Berlin Classics
Catalog: 300227
Release Date: 07/12/2011
Number of Discs: 10
Composer:
Heinrich Isaac,
Pierre de La Rue,
Josquin Des Préz,
Antoine de Févin
...
Performer:
Karl-Heinz Schmieder,
Werner Eberhardt,
Siegfried Hausmann,
Joachim Vogt
...
Conductor:
Dietrich Knothe,
Hans Gruss,
Roderich Kreile,
Rudolf Mauersberger
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Schütz-Akademie,
Virtuosi Saxoniae,
Trompetensemble Ludwig Güttler
...
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 9909028
Release Date: 06/14/2011
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
George Frideric Handel
Performer:
Bejun Mehta,
Andrew Davies,
Neal Davies,
Lucy Taylor
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin,
Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 9809028
Release Date: 06/14/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Frideric Handel
Performer:
Kenneth Tarver,
Rosemary Joshua,
Vernon Kirk,
Kristina Hammarström
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus,
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 902039
Release Date: 05/10/2011
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Franz Joseph Haydn
Performer:
Johannes Weisser,
Julia Kleiter,
Maximilian Schmitt
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra,
Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus
Label: Berlin Classics
Catalog: 300202
Release Date: 04/12/2011
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Ferruccio Busoni
Performer:
Christine Schornsheim,
Violetta Liebsch,
Armin Thalheim,
Mechtild Stark
...
Conductor:
Helmut Koch,
Martin Flämig,
Burkhard Glaetzner,
Franz Konwitschny
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Neues Bachisches Collegium
Label: Berlin Classics
Catalog: 300153
Release Date: 03/08/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:
Ludwig Güttler,
Hans-Joachim Rotzsch,
René Jacobs,
Peter Schreier
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Virtuosi Saxoniae,
Leipzig New Bach Collegium Musicum,
Trompetensemble Ludwig Güttler
...
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 2918163
Release Date: 11/09/2010
Number of Discs: 10
Composer:
Anonymous,
Adam of St. Victor,
Folquet de Marseille,
Gautier de Coincy
...
Performer:
Massimo Cialfi,
Conrad Steinmann,
Arianna Savall,
Luiz Alves Da Silva
...
Conductor:
Suzanne Haďk-Vantoura,
Maurice Benhamou,
Sister Marie Keyrouz,
Marcel Pérčs
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Chorus,
St. Julien-le-Pauvre Byzantine Choir,
L'Ensemble de la Paix
...
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 902068
Release Date: 09/14/2010
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Anne-Kristiina Kaappola,
Daniel Behle,
Marcos Fink,
Sunhae Im
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus,
Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Recommendation
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 5901330
Release Date: 08/10/2010
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Claudio Monteverdi
Performer:
Christoph Homberger,
Dominique Visse,
Lena Lootens,
Michael Schopper
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Concerto Vocale
Recommendation
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog: 5901553
Release Date: 08/10/2010
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Claudio Monteverdi
Performer:
Paul Gerimon,
Harry Peeters,
Bernarda Fink,
Andreas Scholl
...
Conductor:
René Jacobs
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Concerto Vocale
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