Stephen Varcoe
Encyclopedia
Stephen Varcoe (born 19 May 1949 in Lostwithiel
) is an English classical bass-baritone
singer, appearing internationally in opera and concert, known for Baroque and contemporary music and a notable singer of Lied
er.
, where he sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge
. In 1977 he won a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation.
On the opera stage he appeared in Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa
in Antwerp, in Debussy's Fall of the House of Usher in Lisbon and London, in John Tavener
's opera Mary Of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival
, and he performed the part of Plutone in Peri's Euridice at the Drottningholm Festival in Sweden. He also performed the parts of Death in Gustav Holst
's chamber opera Savitri
, Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
and Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
's Mozart & Salieri.
He performed Alexander Goehr
's Sonata About Jerusalem with Oliver Knussen
and the Schoenberg Ensemble, Bach's St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
' Sir John In Love with Richard Hickox
and the Northern Sinfonia, and Schubert
's Mass in E flat major with Roger Norrington
and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
in the field of historically informed performance
, Varcoe recorded in 1984 with Hans-Martin Linde
Bach's Missa in A major and the Missa in G major. He recorded several Bach cantata
s with John Eliot Gardiner
, the Monteverdi Choir
and the English Baroque Soloists
, including an early 1990 recording of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, together with Ruth Holton
and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson. He also recorded with the group Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion and participated in the group's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000. He recorded Bach's Magnificat
and Mass in B minor with Hickox and the Collegium Musicum 90
.
His recording of songs of Charles Villiers Stanford
with pianist Clifford Benson was acclaimed in the International Record Review in 2000:
Varcoe wrote a book on the art of singing English song: Sing English Song: a practical approach to the language and the repertoire.
He was appointed the President of the Betty Roe
Society in 2010.
Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739...
) is an English classical bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
singer, appearing internationally in opera and concert, known for Baroque and contemporary music and a notable singer of Lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er.
Professional career
Stephen Varcoe studied at CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, where he sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great British choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's College, Cambridge in 1441, to provide daily singing in his Chapel, which remains the main task of the...
. In 1977 he won a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation.
On the opera stage he appeared in Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa
L'infedeltà delusa
L'infedeltà delusa , Hob. 28/5, is an operatic burletta per musica by Joseph Haydn. The Italian libretto was by Marco Coltellini, perhaps reworked by Carl Friberth who also took part in the first performance.-Performance history:...
in Antwerp, in Debussy's Fall of the House of Usher in Lisbon and London, in John Tavener
John Tavener
Sir John Tavener is a British composer, best known for such religious, minimal works as "The Whale", and "Funeral Ikos"...
's opera Mary Of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
, and he performed the part of Plutone in Peri's Euridice at the Drottningholm Festival in Sweden. He also performed the parts of Death in Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's chamber opera Savitri
Savitri (opera)
Sāvitri is a chamber opera in one act by Gustav Holst, his Opus 25, with the libretto by Holst himself. The story is based on the episode of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahābhārata, which was also included in Specimens of Old Indian Poetry and Idylls from the Sanskrit...
, Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
and Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
's Mozart & Salieri.
He performed Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr is an English composer and academic.Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Oliver Messiaen's...
's Sonata About Jerusalem with Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
and the Schoenberg Ensemble, Bach's St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock
Trevor Pinnock
Trevor David Pinnock CBE is an English conductor, harpsichordist, and occasional organist and pianist.He is best known for his association with the period-performance orchestra The English Concert which he helped found and directed from the keyboard for over 30 years in baroque and early classical...
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' Sir John In Love with Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox
Richard Sidney Hickox CBE was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.-Early life:Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family...
and the Northern Sinfonia, and Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Mass in E flat major with Roger Norrington
Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....
and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
in the field of historically informed performance
Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach in the performance of music and theater. Within this approach, the performance adheres to state-of-the-art knowledge of the aesthetic criteria of the period in which the music or theatre work was conceived...
, Varcoe recorded in 1984 with Hans-Martin Linde
Hans-Martin Linde
Hans-Martin Linde is a noted virtuoso flute and recorder player of baroque and early music.He authored a number of original and highly instructive books on the flute and recorder respectively....
Bach's Missa in A major and the Missa in G major. He recorded several Bach cantata
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
s with John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...
, the Monteverdi Choir
Monteverdi Choir
The Monteverdi Choir was founded in 1964 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. A specialist Baroque ensemble, the Choir has become famous for its stylistic conviction and extensive repertoire, encompassing music from the early...
and the English Baroque Soloists
English Baroque Soloists
The English Baroque Soloists is a chamber orchestra playing on period instruments, formed in 1978 by English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Its repertoire comprises music from the early Baroque period to the Classical period...
, including an early 1990 recording of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, together with Ruth Holton
Ruth Holton
-Training:Holton won a choral exhibition at Clare College, Cambridge and studied music there. Her later musical studies were with Elizabeth Lane, Nancy Long and Julie Kennard.-Career:...
and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson. He also recorded with the group Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion and participated in the group's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000. He recorded Bach's Magnificat
Magnificat (Bach)
The Magnificat in D major, BWV 243, is a major vocal work of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed for orchestra, a five-part choir and four or five soloists. The text is the canticle of Mary, mother of Jesus, as told by Luke the Evangelist .Bach composed an initial version in E flat major in 1723...
and Mass in B minor with Hickox and the Collegium Musicum 90
Collegium Musicum 90
Collegium Musicum 90 is an English baroque orchestra playing on period instruments. It was founded by violinist Simon Standage and conductor Richard Hickox in 1990 and was jointly directed by them until the death of Hickox in November 2008.Collegium Musicum means something like musical guild and...
.
His recording of songs of Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
with pianist Clifford Benson was acclaimed in the International Record Review in 2000:
He sounds as if he has been singing Stanford all his life, and his warm, natural baritone, finely judged legato and sensitivity to words are a joy throughout.
Varcoe wrote a book on the art of singing English song: Sing English Song: a practical approach to the language and the repertoire.
He was appointed the President of the Betty Roe
Betty Roe
Betty Roe is an English composer, singer, vocal coach, and conductor.-Biography:Betty Roe was born in North Kensington, London, England. Her father was a fishmonger at the Shepherd's Bush Market, and her mother was a bookkeeper...
Society in 2010.
External links
- Stephen Varcoe website
- Stephen Varcoe on classicalarchives.com
- Stephen Varcoe on signumrecords.com
- Entries for recordings by Stephen Varcoe on WorldCatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
- The Betty Roe Society