German baritone Thomas Quasthoff has overcome adversity (his mother took Thalidomide) to become the outstanding German lieder singer of his generation — but that’s just part of his career, which has also taken in Bach cantatas, live staged opera (Don Fernando in Fidelio and Amfortas in Parsifal), and jazz (an “American Songbook” recital at Carnegie Hall last March and the 2007 Deutsche Grammophon release Watch What Happens — The Jazz Album). He made his Boston debut in 1998, singing Gustav Mahler’s sublime song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”) with tenor Ben Heppner and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. Now he and Heppner are back to perform the same piece November 19 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, in a Celebrity Series presentation that’s Boston’s hottest classical-music event in years. Here’s what he had to say over the phone from Berlin.
Has your view of Das Lied von ver Erde changed since 1998?
My view hasn’t changed. But my voice changed. I’m much more experienced, I’m older, and since that time there is a very very close relationship to the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle. The fact that makes me extremely happy is that I’m doing this also again with Ben Heppner whom I love from the bottom of my heart not only as a great artist but also as a very very nice human being.
Do you sing with Ben often?
No, not that often, but I love him very very much.
Have you sung Das Lied with Ben since 1998?
No, I haven’t. I haven’t been singing Das Lied so very often, because it’s a baritone piece, and my voice is now more and more in the bass-baritone role. I’m able to sing it, but I’m not doing it very often. But for this engagement I couldn’t say no. Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony and Boston again, and I love the Hall, even the people in Boston, I love Boston by itself very very much, so I’m really looking forward to coming.
How is doing Das Lied with Simon Rattle dfferent from doing it with Seiji Ozawa?
The question is a little problematic because I haven’t done it yet. The rehearsals are starting on Monday, and then I can tell you whether there’s really a big difference. But I think in many ways it’s a little bit comparable, because both Seiji and Simon are extremely impassioned conductors. The musical view will be different, but that I can tell you even better when I am starting rehearsals.
How is the Bernlin Philharmonic different from the BSO?
Oy! It’s difficult to say. I mean, in many ways the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra with, well, I don’t know how many people in the orchestra are soloists. You can start with the huge difference in the history of this orchestra, since the first moment when it existed, the Berlin Philharmonic was one of the really greatest orchestras in the world. And I don’t think that’s really changed very much. I don’t know — and this is more a question than a comment — if the Boston Symphony is the best orchestra in the world, I think that’s still the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. I think what makes that orchestra really very astonishing is that every group — even if you take trombones, bassoons, flutes, trumpets, horns, violins, cellos, double bass, the level of musicmaking in every one of these groups is so astonishing. And it’s an orchestra that can anticipate, which is not really possible for every orchestra in the world. Give me one orchestra that’s able to play so many different styles. I think that’s really very singular. This orchestra is extremely flexible in styles. I did a lot of very different things with them. I did Mahler with them, I did Frank Martin, the Jedermann Monologues, I did Shostakovich Symphony No. 14, I did a lot of extremely different literature, and they’re all playing it very very beautiful. So maybe that also makes this orchestra very very special. And they have one of my absolutely favorite musical directors, but that is definitely comparable to Boston too. I like Jimmy Levine. The fact that every group is playing on an extremely high level — that is not really the case with every other first-class orchestra. Would you agree with me?
I would. I’ve heard the Berlin Philharmonic too often to disagree. In fact, I’ve heard you sing with the orchestra in Berlin, Schumann’s Faust, in 2002.
Then you know exactly what I mean. It’s an astonishing band.
The last time you sang in Boston in 2002, you had to reprimand the Jordan Hall audience for coughing and interrupting the Schubert Postludes. Are Boston audiences worse than elsewhere?
No. It’s even worse. Madrid has not really the coughing problem, but Madrid has cellphones. The last recital I did in Madrid, in the Auditorium Nacional, it was really — I think five times or six times that it started to ring, and the worst thing was that the last time the lady started to talk, she didn’t put it off, she started the conversation on the cellphone. And that’s very disgusting.
