In August 1999, Thomas Quasthoff sang Mozart arias with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Gottfried von der Goltz. There were three concerts in the U.S.:
Chicago Sun-Times by Andrew Patner (August 11, 1999)
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Quasthoff is the real thing, as he showed last season in his solo turn in the Brahms German Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His voice is rich and full, with extraordinary deepness. His intelligence shows in his communicative skills and in his interpretations, which though personal, are never contrived.
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At Ravinia, Quasthoff began with Leporello's catalog aria from "Don Giovanni." He proved that he can express more with only his voice and facial expressions than most singers can with their full bodies.
Three lesser-known Italian concert arias were the program's centerpiece. Written as occasional works for singers Mozart admired, they allowed Quasthoff to show an operatic range of passions and sentiments. Surely the time will come when an opera house will recognize that excluding a singer of this level makes about as much sense as barring someone because of race or weight.
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Quasthoff returned for an encore of Sarastro's aria "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" from "The Magic Flute." Singing in his native German for the first time that evening, it was as if one more layer were removed to reveal the pure music-making of a gifted artist.
Boston Globe by Richard Dyer (August 13, 1999)
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... Quasthoff entered, climbed a step to a podium that had been placed in the central conductor's position, and leaned back on a chair behind his music stand. But once he started to sing Leporello's catalog of Don Giovanni's conquests in this all-Mozart concert, Quasthoff created a more complete and compelling characterization, and a more amusing one, than many Leporellos in full costume in staged performances. He did it with his voice, but also with a face made for the stage.
There is, ultimately, lots more to Quasthoff than his story; a story will bring people in once, but only compelling artistry will bring them back, repeatedly. Quasthoff boasts an extraordinary voice ranging resonantly and evenly across 2 1/2 octaves, and he has the most completely realized technique of any male singer before the public today; Bryn Terfel is the only plausible competition. Quasthoff can sing loudly and softly over his whole range; this Leporello could sound as convincingly seductive as any Don Giovanni. In this operatic aria and three concert arias, Quasthoff sang an Italian notably purer than that offered by some of his revered German predecessors. Best of all, Quasthoff is always singing about something; his expressive intent is always specific and intelligent, and often original. ...
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New York Times by Allan Kozinn (August 14, 1999)
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... the clear highlight of the concert and probably the real draw was a group of arias performed by the 39-year-old German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, who sang from a raised podium to compensate for his small stature, a result of his mother's use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy. Vocally, Quasthoff has everything: a deep, rich tone, the power to project with apparent ease in a hall as large as Fisher and the imagination and personality to enliven the works at hand.
His account of "Madamina," the catalogue aria from "Don Giovianni," was immediately winning for its nuanced humor. He brought a palpable sense of drama and tension to "Cosė dunque tradisci . . . Aspri rimorsi atroci" (K. 432), and he sang "Mentre ti lascio" with an affecting pathos. Mozart's concert arias for bass are heard more rarely than those for soprano, but they are equally spectacular both in their vocal demands and in the vividness of their scoring.
Quasthoff ended his part of the program with "Per questa bella mano" (K. 612), an aria with an obbligato for double bass, played here with virtuosic assurance by Love Persson, one of the orchestra's bassists. Four other players from the orchestra were also heard as soloists: Katharina Arfken, an oboist; Lorenzo Coppola, a clarinetist; Teunis van der Zwart, a hornist, and Donna Agrell, a bassoonist, played the Sinfonia Concertante in E flat (K. 297b). The authenticity of the work itself has long been a matter of dispute among reputable musicologists, but regardless of its pedigree, it is a pleasing piece that brings an unusual combination of instruments to center stage. Ms. Arfken's oboe playing was the standout here, but all four players contributed consistently shapely lines.