Andreas Falentin writes in the „Die deutsche Bühne“: “Is it not an amazing idea to tackle the famous Letter of Lord Chandos by Hugo von Hofmannsthal on today’s opera stage? It is especially so if you have a singer such as Holger Falk at the disposal, who takes you along, actually almost forces you into the jungle of Hofmannsthal’s later period poetry. Falk’s voice moves seamlessly from the deep baritone register to falsetto; he never uses pressure, is never too loud, and so precisely articulates the text that one understands every word.”
And Regine Müller writes in the „Neue Zürcher Zeitung“: “Then Falk virtuously raises the vocal line from the deepest baritone range to countertenor falsetto. Falk masters the pitfalls of this highly demanding and serious role splendidly. His diction is flawless and intellectually satisfying.”

Together with the baroque ensemble „nuovo aspetto“ and the sound artists „Merzouga“ Holger sings Gondolier songs of the 18th century and combines them with the sounds of todays Venice.
Listen to Niels Kaisers Radio Podcast choosing the recording as HR2 CD-Tip (go to the link below or click on the picture):
hr2 Podcast: Holger Falk (Bariton), Nuovo Aspetto, Merzouga (Soundscapes): Il gondoliere veneziano – A musical voyage through Venice

Reinhard Brembeck writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: „Falk certainly sings the standard repertoire – Papageno, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Eisenstein, Rossini’s Figaro, Pelleas and Wozzeck. He also sings modern classics such as Henze’s Homburg Prince, Trojan’s Enrico, Bernd A. Zimmermann’s Stolzius and many premieres. But what expands the portrait of this exceptional artist to the unusual is that he also has a penchant for experimental works which, without his holding back, use the voice in roller- coaster-like acrobatics, and were created for such legendary extreme singers like Spyros Sakkas or Roy Hart.“
And „Abendzeitung München“ writes: “This staged song-cycle offers the singer maximum opportunity for expression. Holger Falk memorably fills the giant range of the role with his yearning, projecting baritone from the relatively normally sung passages to the ugly, snarling bass register, to confused laughter and cackling, to the remarkably beautiful falsetto. At the high point of this bone-crusher, he imagines himself in a glittery show world and ticks along to the distorted vaudeville music in a haunted house until he rips the instrument from the violinist and smashes it on the ground.”

After being awarded for their recording „Erik Satie: Intégrale des Mélodies et Chansons“ and nominations for „Hanns Eisler: Lieder und Balladen“ vol.1, vol.2 and vol.3 in the years 2017-2019 Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher are again nominated for the OPUS KLASSIK award in the section „Beste Liedeinspielung 2020“.

After winning the prestigeous award in 2017 for the first of his Eisler recordings, now his new CD project „Il gondoliere veneziano“ , the beautiful collage of 18th century „canzoni da battello“ and sound-compositions of todays Venice by the Duo Merzouga
is nominated for this years award.

Hanns Eisler has left more than 500 songs, and it comes without a saying: piano songs are also among his earliest compositions. On the fourth and last episode of their selection of Eisler’s songs, Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher dedicate themselves to these early works and discover that as an autodidact, the young Hanns possessed already a sensitive feeling for the singing voice. This collection of early songs includes also Eislers time as a student of Arnold Schoenberg with subtle dodecaphonic compositions as well as the phase after breaking up with Schoenbergs tradition, composing the famous „Zeitungsausschnitte“, a collection of adds he found in newspapers set into music.