Photo Credit: Matt Dine
The first experiences with music Albrecht Mayer gathered as a member of the cathedral choir in his hometown of Bamberg, and perhaps the warm, lyrical character of his oboe playing finds its roots there. His musicianship repeatedly earns the highest praise: critics speak of “divine sparks,” the “wondrous oboe,” or describe Mayer elevating the oboe to an “instrument of seduction.”
Albrecht Mayer began his professional career in 1990 as principal oboist with the Bamberg Symphony. Since 1992, he has held the same position with the Berlin Philharmonic and, in parallel, increasingly made a name for himself as a concert soloist. Today, he is one of the most sought-after oboists of our time. As a soloist, he has worked with great conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Simon Rattle, and François-Xavier Roth. In 2007, he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is also an enthusiastic chamber musician, collaborating with partners such as Vital Julian Frey, Hélène Grimaud, Leif Ove Andsnes, and Lars Vogt.
In 2006, Mayer was awarded the Bamberg E.T.A. Hoffmann Cultural Prize. In 2013, he was inducted into the “Hall of Fame” of Gramophone magazine and received the Bavarian Culture Prize. He has won the ECHO Klassik award three times, twice as Instrumentalist of the Year, and his album Mozart won the Opus Klassik for Concert Recording of the Year 2022. Mayer’s successful autobiography Klangwunder: Wie die Kraft der Musik mich geheilt hat (Sound Miracle: How the Power of Music Healed Me), co-written with journalist Heidi Friedrich, was published in September 2022.
Always in search of new repertoire, Albrecht Mayer enjoys lending his oboe voice to works written for other instruments, with a particular fascination for the human voice, the most “natural” instrument of all. His first DG album, Lieder ohne Worte (Songs Without Words)—Bach transcriptions for oboe and orchestra—reached number 2 on the German classical charts. The album New Seasons even entered the German pop charts, showcasing Handel in a strikingly new light by entrusting vocal lines from operas and oratorios to the oboe. His release On Mozart’s Trail with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra topped the German classical charts. His album In Venice focused on Venetian Baroque composers. This was followed by Bach, featuring works by J.S. Bach for oboe, choir, and orchestra; the Drums ’n’ Chant project with Austrian percussionist Martin Grubinger; Bonjour Paris, with works by Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Fauré, D’Indy, and Françaix; Schilflieder, exploring Romantic treasures; and Let It Snow!, recorded with the King’s Singers.
In 2015, the album Lost and Found introduced four little-known oboe and English horn concertos of the Viennese Classical period, with Mayer as both soloist and conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam. On Tesori d’Italia (2017), Mayer collaborated with I Musici di Roma, performing Vivaldi’s popular oboe concerto in C major RV 450 as well as long-lost concertos by Giuseppe Sammartini, Domenico Elmi, and Giovanni Alberto Ristori. The 2019 album Longing for Paradise with the Bamberg Symphony under Jakub Hrůša features music for oboe and orchestra by Elgar, Strauss, Ravel, and Goossens, united by their composers’ experiences of loss and war—past, present, or imminent—and a yearning for beauty in the face of tragedy.
The album Mozart, released in April 2021 and described as an “auditory delight” by the Wiener Zeitung, reflects the oboist’s lifelong love for the works of the Salzburg composer. Mayer’s recording with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and harpsichordist Vital Julian Frey includes six arrangements for oboe, oboe d’amore, or English horn, as well as a newly commissioned completion of the fragmentary oboe concerto in F major KV 293 (416f). An expanded edition of Mozart, featuring six additional pieces (including three transcriptions of arias from The Magic Flute), was released in November 2021.
Mayer’s latest album is dedicated to the uniquely talented Bach family. Recorded with the Berliner Barock Solisten and Gottfried von der Goltz (solo violin/concertmaster), it features works by Johann Sebastian, Johann Christoph, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. Bach Generations was released in August 2023.
Recent highlights of his touring calendar include performances at the 2023 Hitzacker Music Week, where he concluded his tenure as artistic director; renditions of Peter Ruzicka’s Aulodie at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the composer’s baton; and a gala concert with the Gewandhaus Orchestra during Leipzig’s “Bach300” festival, marking 300 years since J.S. Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor.
Upcoming engagements include a chamber music recital with friends at the Edinburgh Festival 2023 featuring works by Mozart, Britten, Goossens, and Moeran (August); a performance at the Seoul Arts Center with the Korean National Symphony Orchestra and David Reiland (October); and repertoire from Bach Generations in a series of concerts with the Berliner Barock Solisten in Frankfurt, Hanover, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Hamburg, Cologne, Regensburg, Munich, and Berlin (December).
In addition to his numerous musical commitments, Mayer founded the Albrecht Mayer Foundation to support research and therapy for retinal and visual nerve diseases. “Of course, hearing is an essential part of my life as a musician,” he explains. “But this awareness of the irreplaceable importance of sensory perception makes it unimaginable for me to live with severely impaired vision or even complete blindness!”
Albrecht Mayer plays oboes and an oboe d’amore crafted by German instrument makers Gebrüder Mönnig.
August 2023