Andreas Spering

Andreas Spering is one of the leading specialists for historically informed performance in Germany. His artistic outlook was decisively influenced by Gerd Zacher, under whom he studied in Essen, as well as by Reinhard Goebel and his renowned ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, of which Spering was a member as harpsichordist from 1990 to 1994.

In 1996, Spering was appointed Artistic Director of the Brühl Palace Concerts. With the orchestra Capella Augustina, of which he is founder, he has been focusing that concert series on the works of Haydn since 2002, thereby establishing the first and only festival dedicated to Haydn in the Federal Republic of Germany. Here he conducted over 60 symphonies, the great oratorios and 8 operas by the composer.

As an opera conductor, Andreas Spering has made guest appearances in Antwerp, Essen, Gothenburg, Hanover, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Nantes, Nuremberg, Rouen, Seville and Strasbourg, where he mainly conducted the great Mozart operas, Beethoven’s ›Fidelio‹ and Weber’s ›Freischütz‹. In Aix-en-Provence he could be seen with ›Don Giovanni‹ and ›La finta giardiniera‹. In Brussels and Amsterdam he directed the production ›And you must suffer‹, staged by Pierre Audi, and Wagner’s ›Rheingold at Kulturwald festival. Handel’s work has an important place in his career. For many years he was musical director of the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, where he conducted numerous productions. For the 40th anniversary of the festival he returned with a celebrated production of ›Alcina‹. He is also a frequent guest at the Handel Festival in Halle.

Spering conducted orchestras such as the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Weimar Staatskapelle and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Hannover, Leipzig, Saarbrücken, and Munich.

The highlights of his 2019/20 season were his return to the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra with symphonies of Beethoven, the Triple Concerto and Bruckner’s 2nd Symphony with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a new production of ›Le nozze di Figaro‹ at the Opéra National de Lorraine.

His discography includes a number of award-winning recordings. His recording of Haydn’s early cantatas (harmonia mundi) received several accolades, including the ›Choc du Monde de la musique‹. The recording of Haydn’s ›Il ritorno di Tobia‹ (Naxos) received the German Record Critics’ Annual Award. Most recently, Sony released a Mozart CD with Sabine Meyer and the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Andreas Spering lives in Cologne with his family and two dogs.

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