Klaus Mertens

Klaus Mertens lyrics

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    Critics have heralded bass-baritone Klaus Mertens as ‘an excellent master of his subject’, praising his ‘unmistakeable depth of expression, his pleasant timbre, his sensitivity to the text, as well as his convincing musicianship’: ‘his interpretations of songs, cantatas and oratorios set benchmarks’. Mertens performs across the globe, joining forces with the most celebrated symphony orchestras and early music ensembles, and he is equally in demand as a guest performer at major festivals. In addition to his close partnership with Ton Koopman, Mertens works with many of the leading specialists in early music, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas McGegan, Gustav Leonhardt, Philippe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, René Jacobs, Frans Brüggen, and many others. His broad repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to contemporary composers. Notably, Mertens is the only singer anywhere in the world to have performed the entire vocal oeuvres of both Johann Sebastian Bach and Dietrich Buxtehude in concert and to have recorded them on CD. These performances under the baton of Ton Koopman continue to enjoy great international acclaim. In 2016, the city of Magdeburg awarded Klaus Mertens the Telemann prize, recognising him as ‘one of the most important singers of Telemann’s works in our time’. The city of Leipzig, in turn, presented Mertens with the renowned Bach medal in 2019, hailing him ‘the ideal performer of Bach’s cantatas and passion settings’.