Christopher Maltman & Malcolm Martineau - Debussy: Songs (2003)

Christopher Maltman is a British baritone whose career began developing rapidly around the turn of the millennium. He graduated from Warwick University in biochemistry. By that time his vocal talents had been recognized and he entered London's Royal Academy of Music in 1991. His main teacher there was Mark Wildman. He had private studies with Sesto Bruscantini and attended the Brereton International Music Symposium where he had lessons with Thomas Hampson. In 1997, he won the Lieder Prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, beginning an international career. In the following season he sang the part of Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory in the Glyndebourne Touring Opera company, and the title role in Britten's Billy Budd in a new production at the Welsh National Opera. He has accepted an invitation sing the same role in Seattle. His other Britten roles include Ned Keene in Peter Grimes for the Glyndebourne Festival and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia at the Montpellier Festival. At La Monnaie in Brussels he debuted as Dandini in Rossini's Cenerentola. His debut role with the English National Opera was Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville. For the same company he has sung the Count in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and repeated his portrayal of Rossini's Figaro at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden. At the Edinburgh Festival he sang the part of Merlin in Chabrier's Le Roi Arthus. He has become a member of the English National Opera company. His Lieder victory in Cardiff is an indication of his strong commitment to recital and concert singing. As a Lieder singer, he has begun a notable recording career, including participation in the Deutsche Grammophon complete set of Beethoven folk song arrangements, songs by Holst and Sommervell for Collins Classics, a set of songs of John Ireland and another disc of assorted English art songs for Hyperion, and participation in Hyperion's complete Robert Schumann Lieder project, singing Dichterliebe. In addition, he sang in three of the landmark complete Schubert series discs on the same label. He has sung in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Chatelet of Paris, and the Hohenems and Edinburgh Festivals. He has shared the concert stage with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Lord Menuhin, Leonard Slatkin, Peter Schreier, Jan Latham-Koenig, and Kurt Masur. His repertory includes Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, Britten's War Requiem, Schubert's Stabat Mater, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.